South African heavyweight Kevin Lerena did what he had to do to prevail, besting German-based Albanian Senad Gashi by unanimous 12-round decision at Emperor’s Palace in Gauteng, South Africa, on Saturday night. 

In a fight that was often scrappy and full of rough stuff, Lerena, with former heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis looking on at ringside, kept his composure. He landed the harder, more explosive shots against an awkward opponent.

In a battle of southpaws, Gashi had the slightly busier hands in the opening stanza, digging his right hook to the body. He also showed a propensity for diving into his opponent and coming up with his head from underneath, something that remained a danger for the rest of the fight.

Lerena got going in the second, landing a left hook followed by his usual eye-catching straight left. A right hook came into play as well. A left at the end of the round sent the spray flying, getting the capacity crowd excited.

Gashi responded by going righty at the start of the third and would spend the rest of the fight switching between the orthodox and southpaw stance. He rattled off a left uppercut-right hand combination that did not seem to bother his opponent, who responded moments later with a left uppercut and straight left of his own. 

A big left from Lerena followed by a double right hook in the fourth round brought the crowd to their feet. From then on, Gashi boxed on the retreat. He fired off combinations that were partly blocked by Lerena or simply had no effect while Lerena kept stalking, firing off the more explosive shots at a calculated pace.

With WBC open scoring in place (the fight was for that organization’s 224-pound bridgerweight interim belt, a division not recognized by The Ring), Lerena was ahead after four rounds by 40-36 and 38-37 on two cards, with the third even at 38-38.

Bridgerweight? What’s that?

The South African had a big Round 6. After Gashi landed several right hooks, Lerena landed a hard straight left followed by a right hook, which had the crowd chanting, “Kevin! Kevin!” A straight left-right uppercut combination had Gashi staggering into the ropes, where Lerena punished him until the bell. 

Gashi kept at it, though, and had a good eighth round. He started with a stiff double jab in the orthodox stance and out-hustled Lerena for most of the round. 

Still, Lerena now had a lead of 79-73, 77-75 and 78-74 when the next round of scores were announced. Perhaps spurred on by the news, Lerena re-took control in the ninth, landing a snappy right uppercut, a sweeping right hook and a big straight left that kept Gashi on the back foot. The Albanian tried fighting out of the corner, but Lerena flurried at the bell.

Lerena dug two right hooks into Gashi’s body in the tenth and knocked him back onto the ropes with a left.

Gashi tried hard to turn things around in the eleventh, and even though he outworked Lerena, he had to eat a big left for his trouble.

Gashi let it all hang out in the last round, but it was too little too late. To make matters worse, he also got docked a point for a low blow, and what seemed like a pushdown during a scrappy exchange was counted as a knockdown.

The final scores were 117-110, 118-109 and head-scratching 114-113, all for Lerena, who moves his record to 30-2 with 14 knockouts while Gashi drops to 27-4.

A victorious Lerena is joined by former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis. (Photo by Droeks Malan)

Interviewed in the ring after the fight, Lerena called out undefeated Pole Lukasz Rozanski. “Rozanski, sort your thing out with Badou Jack; I am waiting for you!” He also added, “If there are any top-10 heavyweights out there who would like to fight this little southpaw, I am ready to go!”

In the main supporting bout, top junior middleweight prospect Shervantaigh Koopman put on a boxing clinic, winning a unanimous eight-round decision over the teak-tough Cristiano Ndombassy. 

Koopman started by boxing behind his jab, varying the punch to the head and body. He then mixed in his straight right to the body and looping versions of that punch to the head, with increasing regularity as the rounds went by. Every time the Cape Town-based Angolan got too close for comfort, Koopman stopped his advance by straightening him out with a right uppercut.

Ndombassy never stopped coming, but his power punches only found air when they were not blocked by Koopman. A right buckled Ndombassy’s legs in the third. Koopman went after him, but when he saw that his opponent wasn’t going anywhere, he resumed his workmanlike boxing.

In the final round, Ndombassy landed a right followed by a left hook moments later. He would land another single right at the end of the round. In between those punches, though, Koopman snapped his head back with a double right uppercut followed by a left hook and just kept peppering him with non-stop combinations. 

Two cards had it a shutout at 80-72 while the third card had it 79-73.

Koopman moves to 13-0 with nine knockouts while Ndombassy drops to 13-8.

Lightweight Kaine Fourie took a successful step up in class when he knocked out the vastly more experienced Lusanda Komanisi in four rounds.

The fight got off to a slow start with both men wary of each other. Fourie landed some shots to the body while Komanisi responded with the odd jab and straight right.

It all came crashing down in the fourth. Fourie feigned a jab and smashed in his right hand, landing flush on the jaw of Komanisi, who sagged to a knee and was counted out at the 1:19 mark.

Fourie is now 6-0-2 with four knockouts and is one to watch in the future. Komanisi, who drops to 27-8, may be at the end of his career.

Undercard results:

Darrin Rossouw UD 6 Jami Webb (junior middleweight)

Bonginkosi Nhlapo Draw 4 Michael Head (light heavyweight)

Justin Mostert Draw 4 Carl Van Blerk (junior lightweight)

The card was presented by Rodney Berman of Golden Gloves Promotions.