Ex-WBO Global Super bantamweight champion Fillipus ‘Energy’ Nghitumbwa wants another shot at Filipino John Riel Casimero, who took his title last month.
Still reeling from the outcome of the closely contested fight in the Philippines, the Namibian is convinced he should have emerged the victor and has called on the 34 year-old former three-weight division world champion for a rematch.
Nghitumbwa (27) believes he was the dominant fighter and that despite being floored in round six, he “did more than enough to force a win or at worst a draw”.
The judges scored the bout 116-110, 114-112 and 114-112 in favour of the Filipino who improves to 33-4, while Nghitumbwa dropped to 12-2.
“I want a rematch versus Casimero, and this time I will make sure that I finish him off within distance,” Ngitumbwa said in a statement yesterday.
“Everybody who watched the fight knows who the real winner was. I dominated 70% of the fight and was shocked and disappointed with the loss,” he continued.
“While I have a lot of respect for Casimero as a world-class fighter, I know that I am better than him and I want to prove this in the rematch and leave no stone unturned this time. If he claims to be a real champion he must accept this challenge, so that we give the fans another brilliant fight but only this time he will be the one going down,” said a confident Nghitumbwa
The MTC Nestor Sunshine Boxing Academy said Nghitumbwa “punched his heart out against Casimero and gave a world-class performance”.
They believe their fighter to be “the future of the super bantamweight division and he showed this with his performance versus Casimero”.
It remains to be seen whether Casimero will accept this challenge, with the Filipino reportedly having designs on challenging for another world title.
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