MTHALANE SURVIVES LATE KNOCKDOWN TO WIN BY UD OVER WASEEM, WINS IBF FLYWEIGHT TITLE

AXIATA ARENA, KUALA LUMPUR ? In the first championship fight of the day on the Pacquiao-Matthysse undercard, Moruti Mthalane of South Africa re-captured the IBF world flyweight diadem after defeating Muhammad Waseem of Pakistan by unanimous decision early Sunday morning here.

Mthalane used his vast experience to get the better of the exchanges against the relatively inexperience South Korean based Waseeem most of the rounds until Waseem made the fight interesting after he knocked down Mthalane as the 11th round drew to a close. Waseem tried to finish off Mthalane in the last round but the South African survived the round.

Judges Samuel Conde of Puerto Rico and Silvestre Abainza of the Philippines had it 114-113 and Glenn Feldman of the USA, 116-110 all in favor for Mthalane.

Mthalane has now upped his record to 36-2-0 with 24 KOs while Waseem absorbed his first loss in nine starts.