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Lovemore Ndou Fights On

Despite his second close points loss in a high profile fight this year, Lovemore Ndou will continue on and has committed himself to his on-going quest for a world title. The "Black Panther" returned home to Sydney after his 12 round defeat at the hands of Miguel Cotto, optimistic about the future.

"After watching the fight, I thought I did a tremendous job," Ndou, 38-7-1 (24), told SecondsOut. "If the fight took place in Australia, I think I would have won the decision. I exposed him. I made him realise that he is not as good as they make him out to be. Considering I fought with sore ribs, if he hadn't hurt me, I have a feeling I would have stopped him in the later rounds."

While Ndou's left ribs were injured by a Cotto thunderbolt in the fifth round, he gamely fought on, giving the 23 year-old Puerto Rican the toughest fight of his career to date.

"My ribs are still hurting," said Ndou. "It stopped me from putting together my normal combinations. Every time I threw punches I was hurting myself more than when he was with his punches. I showed the heart of a warrior. I didn't show anyone that I was in pain during the fight, not even my corner. I didn't want Cotto to see that I was in pain."

The 32 year-old Australian based South African concedes that being in another well publicised tough fight will make it even harder to entice the leading contenders to get in the ring with him.

"There is nothing I can do about it. That's how I fight," he said. "The American television networks HBO and Showtime bring the money and they decide who is going to be on their shows. The champions and leading contenders out there, if they had a choice, they would avoid me. I believe HBO and Showtime will do the same thing, force these guys and so-called champions to fight me. I am a TV fighter. People enjoy watching me as I am an entertaining fighter who comes to fight."

After going twelve rounds with Sharmba Mitchell in February and now twelve with Cotto, Ndou is in a good position to rate the leading challengers to undisputed champion Kostya Tszyu.

"Cotto is a good up coming prospect and he is very hungry," he said. "He is still young and he has got a lot to learn. Sharmba has been around a lot longer and I don't think he has still got that same hunger in him. Sharmba is just going to hang around and make whatever money he can before he gets beaten. That's why he doesn't want to fight me again. Cotto punches alright, but I wouldn't say he is one of the best punchers out there. The guy whose punching I really respect from those I have fought is Jose Luis Juarez. He is the only one to ever put me on the deck. He had tremendous power. Cotto, he never hurt me with any of the punches he caught me with, except for that one body shot."

Ndou will have further x-rays to determine if his ribs are really broken. An initial scan could not pin point the problem. "I want to get back into training as soon as possible," he said. "I want to fight again as soon as possible. I really wanted to win this time and I was disappointed. Considering everything that happened, I fought OK."

Ndou's wife was refused entry to the USA after a visa bungle the day before the fight and locked up for 15 hours before being sent back to Australia. "I didn't sleep the night before the fight worrying about her," he said.

The self-analysis of everything surrounding and during the fight has already begun and Ndou hinted that there could be some unexpected changes to his training team. "I need to make some changes with my training and the fans can expect to hear some surprising changes very soon," he said mysteriously. "I also want to thank all those people who have been supporting me. I want to thank the IBF, their President Marian Muhammad and Vice-President Ray Wheatley, for giving me the chance to fight in an No.1 eliminator. I still believe that one day, I will be the IBF 140lb champion."

As is always the case with Ndou, he aims for the top and has two high profile names on his hit list. "Floyd Mayweather Jr. knows I want him bad," Ndou said with a smile. "I want Zab Judah too. I went to their press conference at Mandalay Bay when I was in Las Vegas and I told his father and they didn't want to talk about it. I told Don King I want the fight. I told him, 'you know I'll give him a whooping."


Paul Upham
Contributing Editor