Blue Machine losing shine

JULIUS ‘Blue Machine’ Indongo should hang up his gloves, fans and pundits say, after he lost to Welshman Chris Jenkins in Cardiff on Saturday.

Jenkins (23-4-3, 8 KOs) cruised to a routine 78-75 points victory over former unified world champion Indongo (23-5, 12 KOs) on the Chris Eubank Jr and Liam Williams’ undercard.

Englishman Eubank Jr produced a dazzling display scoring four knockdowns to take a comfortable unanimous decision over the Welsh favourite.

In the precursor to the main bout, Jenkins (33) too was rarely troubled as he out-worked Indongo (38) over the duration of eight lopsided rounds.

The Blue Machine looked relatively good in the early rounds but by the fourth and fifth rounds it was clear that he was under pressure but he managed to stay out of serious trouble, despite looking exhausted in his corner.

However, Indongo got back into things in the sixth, as Jenkins’s output slowed after suffering a hand injury, which saw the Namibian do well in the seventh round too as Jenkins waited too long for openings.

The defeat, his fifth in six fights since winning a world-title unification fight against Scotsman Ricky Burns on his last visit to the United Kingdom in 2017, led to calls for Indongo to consider calling time on his career.

Of the five career defeats Indongo has incurred, four ended in stoppages inside four rounds.

Indongo is “nowhere near the champion he was when claiming two belts at 140 pounds, Indongo has to think about his future seriously”, worldboxingnews.net said in its post-fight analysis.

Indongo’s camp remained mum in the aftermath of his latest defeat.

“This loss should no doubt signal the end of Indongo’s career. It’s clear he no longer has what it takes to compete with lower level fighters, let alone the elite of the welterweight division,” said Jerrell Fletcher, the host of YouTube boxing channel ‘Colossal Sports TV’ and lead journalist for 3kingsboxing.com.

“As the fight wore on, fatigue would set in for the ageing former champion, as he would get hit more consistently with the right hand from Jenkins. To make things more difficult for himself, he would lie on the ropes, which only made him a sitting target. This effectively played into the hands of Jenkins, who would out-hustle his man down the stretch,” Fletcher said in his review.

Some of his ardent followers who cannot bear to see him get beat down also feel Indongo’s best days are behind him.

“We have seen his best in his early years. I think he must just retire, I no longer want to see him losing; it’s enough. Let him not make us forget he was once the all time winner,” Sofia Haifeke said on The Namibian’s update of the fight on Facebook.

Thomas Iiyambo added: “Julius is 38 now. He needs to rest. Prime time is gone.”

Meanwhile, ex-British champion Jenkins, who was contemplating retirement before landing the Indongo fight, is upbeat about his prospects.

“It’s a massive thing. When I lost my last fight, I left not knowing if I was ever going to box again,” he told Sky Sports.

“I’ve not got big mileage on the clock, so If I can have a good six to 12 months with good steady wins against guys like my opponent tonight, something big might come up,” Jenkins continued.

“I’ve got massive respect for Julius Indongo. I hit him with some shots and I think I broke my hand.”