Former WBO bantamweight world champion Paulus ‘The Rock’ Ambunda believes Scott Quigg is “in for a shock” when they fight over the WBA Junior featherweight title on 13 September in Manchester, England.
Quigg will be making the fourth defence of his belt when he meets Ambunda, who has vowed to make the most of the opportunity to become a world champion again.
“We have to push hard now. For me it is a big achievement to get another world title fight. I look forward to that day so I can shine again,” said Ambunda, who won the WBO bantamweight title on points against Thailand’s Pungluang Sor Singyu in Windhoek in March 2013.
He lost the title in his first defence, getting outpointed by Japan’s Tomoki Kameda in the Philippines last August.
The date for Quigg’s defence has reportedly been on the books for a month, but the opponent was only finalised on Tuesday.
Quigg, 25, of England, is coming off a dominant second-round knockout win against South African Tshifhiwa Munyai on 19 April, to earn his 28th career win from 30 fights.
Two of Quigg’s last six fights have ended in draws, suggesting that while he remains undefeated, there are cracks in his armour which Ambunda is looking to exploit.
“I don’t really care about his record or how tough he apparently is. I know I’ve got one loss but for me it was just a wake-up call,” said Ambunda.
“He will also get the one loss soon. I’ll be the guy to give him that first loss. He’s in for a shock,” added the 33-year-old.
Ambunda’s trainer and promoter Nestor Tobias echoed the fighter’s confidence, especially after he seamlessly moved up to junior featherweight in May and won his debut in the weight class.
“We have the utmost respect for Quiggs and he has unfortunately made the wrong choice by accepting this fight and we will go there and do our best,” Tobias said.
“This will be Ambunda’s second fight in this weight class which is also known as super bantamweight but we will make this experience memorable for him and the country and we therefore need everybody’s support,” he added.
Given that there are likely to be very few, if any, Namibians attending the fight in Manchester, Tobias is imploring the local broadcasters to beam the fight live.
“The Phone 4 u arena will be crowded with over 20 000 cheering fans from England and we would at best appreciate that the fight be televised live back home so that he knows his people back home are watching. In this light we have requested that the promoter of the fight [Matchroom Boxing] considers giving us the TV rights for Namibia to enable our fans here to watch the fight,” said Tobias.
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