Wasiru ‘Gyata Bi’ Mohammed retained his Ghana national super bantamweight title with a terrific round 2 KO of compatriot, Raymond ‘Chorkor Banku’ Commey at the Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra on Saturday night.
Young Mohammed surprised the sizeable crowd by dropping the experienced Commey with a powerful left hook barely 40 seconds into the second round, so powerful was the effect that Commey appeared to have lost consciousness momentarily, leaving referee Roger Barnor with no choice than to wave off the fight which was the main event of the E&J Promotions bill in the Ghanaian capital.
It ensured a first successful defence of the title he won back in May for the highly rated Mohammed who now improves to 11-0, 9 KOs.
“Its all down to hard work, we have been training very hard and this is the just reward for it. I therefore thank my managers, my coach and my entire team for their support,” Wasiru Mohammed told Dornu’s Corner at ringside.
“I am very happy, I’m excited but I wasn’t surprised because this is Gyata Bi. He’s a very explosive boxer, if you are not ready, don’t get into the ring with him,” added John Manfo, co-manager of Mohammed and co-founder of E&J Promotions.
In other fights on the undercard, Prince Oko Nartey extended the winning start to his career courtesy a round 5 technical knockout of Richard Ashong in a super middleweight bout. Nartey improved to 5-0, 4 KOs.
Another victor on the night was Michael Pappoe who inflicted the first career defeat on Success Tetteh, edging their close affair on split decision whilst Eric Quarm got his professional career off to a winning start, earning a unanimous decision over Ezekiel Annan.
Travis Hanshaw Still WBF Intercontinental Champion
Travis Hanshaw was expected to have a game and motivated challenger in front of him on Saturday night, July 14, in the first defense of his World Boxing Federation (WBF) Intercontinental Light Heavyweight title at Boyd County Community Center in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, USA.
And that is exactly what Roy King was, as the 39-year-old Tennessee-based New Yorker gave the much younger Hanshaw (26) a very good fight, making the favoured champion from nearby Ashland work hard from round one through round twelve.
The first half of the bout was fought on even terms, and both men boxed well in close rounds. But, perhaps served well by his youth, Hanshaw came on strong in the second part of the fight, and deservedly emerged victorious by unanimous decision.
Judge Carlo Kellem scored the fight 115-113, while judges Kent Hendrickson and John House had it a bit wider at 117-112 and 117-111 respectively. Referee in charge of this main event, promoted by Tom Hanshaw, was Marvin Whittamore.
Travis “Rattlesnake” Hanshaw sees his professional record improve to 14-1-1 (7), and Roy King drops to 10-2-1 (5), after an unbeaten streak of nine bouts over the last three years. Despite losing, King appears to have much more to offer in the sport, and can come back strong from the experience.
