Ntege dares African title after big win in Dar
Ntege after defending his regional cruiserweight title in Bombo in April. PHOTO/ABDUL-NASSER SSEMUGABI
What you need to know:
Ntege first struggled against the aggressive Shaban Hamadi Jongo and a hugely partisan environment inside the Super Dome Arena, Dar-Es-Salaam, but emerged victorious after the Tanzanian injured his right leg in the sixth round.
Musa Ntege did what many Uganda professional fighters fail—winning away—moreover, retaining his East and Central Africa Cruiserweight Title for the second time.
Ntege first struggled against the aggressive Shaban Hamadi Jongo and a hugely partisan environment inside the Super Dome Arena, Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania Friday night, but emerged victorious after the Tanzanian injured his right leg in the sixth round.
Jongo’s lethal right came in hooks and uppercuts but Ntege reaped from his fitness and endurance, until he dominated the sixth round, even before Jongo’s devastating fall.
Ntege’s first lethal injection came in the third round when after conceding three on the head, countered with his right on the jaw forcing Jongo to fall, with his right leg bending awkwardly.
This haunted Jongo slowing him down until the sixth round, when the symptoms of wear became obvious.
He was bending, with his right leg farther behind. Ntege pounced, pounding him left-right, up-down. Jongo’s right side had become helpless; neither shooting nor defending.
Jongo knew he wasn’t fine. And when the ref split them, he jogged a bit near the ropes. Maybe he was checking whether his leg could carry on. It couldn’t.
He fell hard, flat on his butt, left leg facing forth, right leg facing backward, nearly breaking his knee. As he tried to slowly pull it back into position, the ref pulled it with force, seemingly worsening his situation.
When the ring doctors responded, Jongo was in gross pain. On his stool, he looked on in envy as Ntege was announced winner by TKO.
“It was a huge victory and now I want the African title,” a sweating Ntege told Azam TV in scattered English, after the second title defense.
His first was against a seventh-round stoppage against another Tanzanian Imani Kawaya in Bombo in April, while the first title win was in September, 2019, against Paul Kamatha also from Tanzania.
“An African title is expensive but we hope we shall get the funds in time,” his manager and promoter Hussein Babu told Daily Monitor.
