16.12.06 – By Colin Nathan: Putting in a career best performance, Thomas Mashaba retained his IBO “World” Featherweight championship for the third time with a crushing third round knockout of Colombian challenger, Oscar Leon this last Friday night at the Jim Summers Hall in Kimberley, South Africa. Not a noted puncher in this division, Mashaba looked absolutely devasting, knocking out Leon, with a single right uppercut in 1:33 in the third round..
The Challenger came to South Africa with good credentials, by losing a pair of split decisions some time ago to Derrick Gainer and Chris John. He too held a win over former WBA Bantamweight Champion, John Michael Johnson.
In his last fight he lost and got stopped in 9 rounds for the Interim WBC Featherweight title against Humberto Soto.
The thought here was that Mashaba was not going to have it easy although favoured to win, he was expected to ride out some really rough patches in the fight.
Fighting out of the southpaw stance, Leon was quick to fight off the back foot and look to counter in the first round in which he did quite effectively. Mashaba looked slightly unsettled as Leon was catching him with sharp straight left hand counters when Mashaba jabbed. Mashaba did manage to catch Leon with a stiff right hand, but Leon took the shot well and it still was a Leon round.
Round 2 saw Mashaba start picking up the pace with him coming forward and effectively catching Leon with some neat looking left hooks, then it happened, literally the last second of the round when Mashaba threw a sharp right uppercut and sent Leon crashing to the canvas in what seemed to be a flash knock-down. Leon argued with referee Andile Matika that he tripped but there was no mistake to it as he was caught.
Round 3 saw Mashaba still coming forward with Leon trying to counter, one got the feeling though, that the strength of Mashaba was starting to show, then as Leon was moving in to throw a counter, Mashaba stepped back and let rip with a right uppercut that sent Leon Crashing to the Canvas where he was counted out by referee Matika.
It could be a case of the fight happening for Mashaba against Leon at the right time, with Leon possibly near the end of his career.
But to me, Mashaba looked absolutely devasting the way he threw that uppercut.
Is Mashaba a legitimate contender for the big guns like Juan Marquez and Chris John?
The answer would be a definite yes, based on the performance that he gave in this last Friday night, he could give both these guys a good run for their money.
There is now talk of Mashaba fighting John for the WBA title possibly early next year.
I would favour his chances if the fight would happen here in South Africa but if it were in John’s back yard in Indonesia there I have to go with John to retain.