Free State-born fighter Lerato Dlamini last Friday delivered an impressive victory over Filipino boxer Dave Penalosa in Saudi Arabia.
Dlamini produced an outstanding performance to outclass Penalosa and win the vacant World Boxing Council Silver featherweight title over 12 rounds at the King Abdullah Sports City.
The Free Star dynamite won the fight on an unanimous points decision. Judges Ian John Lewis and Guido Cavalleri both scored it 117-109 and Rey Danseco 118-108 in favour of Dlamini.
With Dlamini (56.90kg) scoring knockdowns in rounds four and 10 it was difficult to score a round for Penalosa (56.60kg) who went beyond eight rounds for the first time in his career.
The victory was no fluke as Dlamini came out strongly from the opening bell and dominated through the first six rounds, scoring with left and right-hand combinations to the head as Penalosa, was pushed forward with his gloves held up to face but scoring very few effective punches. Dlamini improved his record to 13-1; 6.
In round four a straight right to the head sent Penalosa down, but he was not badly hurt and in the 10th round a classic straight left-right to the head against the southpaw dropped Penalosa in the middle of the ring.
Going into the last round, Dlamini knew he was well ahead and danced around the ring with Penalosa trying to close the gap but to no avail as he boxed his way to an outstanding victory.
