The Akwa Ibom State-Nigerian born and United States-based, current IBA Continental heavyweight champion, Enobong “The Nigerian Gentleman” Umohette, secured his 20th career win recently by unanimous decision, over former WBL heavyweight Champion Fidel “Infierno” Munoz in an eight round contest.
Umohette successfully defended his UBC South American regional title against Munoz in an eight-round contest which held penultimate weekend at Santa Marta Sports Complex, in Colombia.
News reporting from the sports correspondent desk of Santa Marta Heraldo, described the former WBL heavyweight champion Fidel “infierno” Munoz as not only a Colombian native, home town hero and favorite, but a vastly experienced professional with over 80 professional fights which included 35 knock out victories.
The fight was described as very tactical with a highly mobile Munoz, who sought to use lateral angles to out-maneuver Umohette. Munoz was however frustrated by Umohette who controlled the fight from the center of the ring, pressing Munoz steadily, cutting off the ring against the former WBL champion and scoring clean and consistently. All three judges were unanimous in their decision, and had Umohette ahead on points on all three score cards.
Umohette thanked God, his family, his promoter Erik Fleming, Co-Promoter Chief Monte Ekott, boxing fans and his teeming supporters in Nigeria and in the USA for supporting his incredible comeback journey now sporting 11 consecutive wins.
Umohette congratulated fellow Nigerian and heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on his recent spectacular win over the Albanian battle tested Kristen Prenga by a Knock out in the second round. He stated that Joshua not only overcame great adversity in the fight against Prenga by rising up from two knockdowns to stop Prenga, but showed the resilience and fighting spirit of a true warrior through his courage to return to the boxing ring after the gruesome tragedy of losing his closest comrades in a fatal car crash last year. The fatal car crash almost claimed Joshua’s life but left Joshua with a level of physical and emotional trauma that very few would have been able to overcome.
Umohette also congratulated and commended the 21-year-old European-born rising boxing superstar and fellow Akwa Ibomite; Moses Itauma over his first IBF world title fight contention against the very highly decorated Filip Hrgovic of Croatia.
Umohette stated that Itauma showcased all the incredible capabilities that accelerated his rise to world title contention at a very young age of 21. Umohette also stated that Moses Itauma was on the verge of a historic feat last achieved 40 years ago by Mike Tyson and deserves the highest praise for attaining such extreme career heights, while still very young.
He asserted that Itauma remains the future of heavyweight boxing and even though Saturday night was not his, Itauma was going to bounce right back and ultimately capture the coveted world heavyweight title.
Reacting to Umohette’s recent win, promoter Erik Fleming who spoke from his base in California, stated that this fight was an important test for Umohette’s durability in championship level fighting.
He opined that having last gone a full eight round distance in Mexico in 2023 and thereafter winning seven fights back-to-back by knockouts, it was important to re-assess Umohette’s capability of fighting into 8, 10 and 12 round distances without pressing for or being desperate to score a knockout win.
He further stated that in a sport that is sometimes plagued with controversial decisions; the professionalism of the Santa Marta boxing commission was evident by Umohette’s unanimous point victory over a hometown hero in front of his hometown crowd.
Fleming announced that talks would soon begin about Umohette facing the current European Heavyweight boxing champion Labinot Xhoxhaj as Umohette’s record now improves to 20 wins with only 3 losses.