The rematch between a promising Ghanaian lightweight champion Sherif Quaye and Michael Ansah, the main card of the fight night dubbed the “Bukom Brawl” promoted by arguably the most successful local Ghanaian promotional syndicate Box Office Promotions scheduled for the Bukom Boxing Arena came off in an atmosphere of awe, shock, paranoia and ecstasy but by far met the expectations of nearly 4,000 boxing fans at the arena.
Amidst confusion and uncoordinated crowd that followed “one bullet” Ansah 29, (17-9-2, 11KOs) from the locker room to the ring, he was met with big jeers from the crowd largely rooting for him whilst he danced into the ring with 2FACE NDIBIA’s “Wintin Dey” hit song.
Mysteriously Quaye 29, (17-2-1, 10KOs) was held back by his supporters for 15 minutes when he was making his way into the ring but was later carried on the shoulder into the ring with a melodious local gospel.
Now the noise, the trolls and the hard talk is over and the boxers face each other in the ring ready to show us the brawl promised in the last presser.
In a very tensed atmosphere the boxers greeted the round with cautious punches as they sized themselves with Ansah the aggressor as Quaye Jabs and moves away Ansah’s inaccurate wide punches.
One bullet Ansah’s aggression was telling and paved to open the defence of Quaye but the latter intelligently warded away from the ferocious punches of Ansah in a fashionable style as he lead with jabs.
Quaye who is a pound for pound boxer which was so evident in their first encounter clearly showed a far departure from his strength and adopted the jabs and occasionally clinching.
Evidently the game plan of his team was just naked whilst one bullet Ansah kept his aggression unrelentingly.
A lefthook from Quaye and another right hook wobbled Ansah but he came back with a cracking left hook which was gleefully responded by a partisan crowd all in favour of Ansah. Quaye had a big round 4 as Ansah threw untargeted punches.
Round 5 had superb exchanges by both boxers trading good punches and suddenly a brawl ensued in the crowd but was swiftly controlled by the police. It was nothing short of a charged atmosphere as the supporters cheered their respective boxers on.
Momentarily what looked like an even fight with Quaye slightly ahead of Ansah changed as the aggression of Ansah paid off when a right flash from bullet landed to force Quaye but one bullet came in with solid body shots, right and left hook.
Now Quaye is off and will resort to clinching to extricate him from the torrents of punches from Ansah. The referee at the center Michael Neequaye separated the boxers and again. Ansah attacked with a left hook which sent Quaye to the ropes and lost his legs. The referee held Quaye and wave his hands to signal the closure of the fight in the seven round.
Michael Ansah lived the promised of stopping Sherif Quaye with wild jubilation from the crowd and Ansah’s corner.
“I told you I will stop sheriff, he tried his best but couldn’t stand the pressure from the bullet”. Ansah said when was interviewed after he had been declared winner of the fight.
On the night former IBF welterweight world champion Joshua Clottey stopped Mfuame Mfuame from Tanzania in middleweight contest in round 6.
Abraham Tabul secured (117-114, 118-112 and 116-112) unanimous win against Patrick Furguson in WBO Africa cruiserweight championship.
Former WBC super featherweight world title contender Maxwell Awuku retired Mouibi Saouna in the sixth round of their ten rounder super featherweight contest whilst Isaac Sackey a former WBO Africa super bantamweight champion also secured a round 7KO against Edward Kambasi.
The Bantamweight contest between Prince Dzanie and Raymond commey ended in a unanimous decision in favour of Dzanie whilst Larry Abarra crashed Albert Commey in round one of a six rounder super bantamweight contest.
The night also saw Kazakhstani national Hasibullah Ahmadi winning a round one KO against Saidu Amadu with Anthony De Brujin also stopping Joshua Owusu in round two.
Sapabay Aidarov, Abikhaiyr Shegaliyev and Anahit Aroyan all Kazakhstani nationals won their fights in round two, one and one respectively against their Ghanaian opponent.