Rumble at Rama XI: Molitor Tops Ndlovu, Brown Defeats Julaton

Andrew Fruman recaps Saturday night's Rumble at Rama XI show.

Check out Giordano Ciampini's photo gallery of the show.

Canadian Steve Molitor won a dreary twelve round unanimous decision Saturday night from South African Takalani Ndlovu in the main-event of Rumble at Rama XI.

Molitor landed the cleaner punches, mostly straight lefts, but let his hands go so infrequently that he was very nearly outhustled by the visiting fighter. Ndlovu wasn’t overly busy himself, but he did nearly all of the leading, as Molitor looked to counter with single shots from the outside while clinching in close.

It was a cautious strategy that got the required result, but provided little in the way of entertainment.

After the bout, Molitor assessed his performance as a B-, explaining that he couldn’t pull the trigger the way he’d done in the gym. His trainer Chris Johnson was a little harsher, rating the effort a C+. Even that grade might have been generous, as the local star never really got going.

The scores were 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113. With the win, Molitor regained the IBF 122lb title he lost to Celestino Caballero back in Novemer 2008.

According to promoter Allan Tremblay, next up for Molitor could be a trip away from the friendly Rama confines – possibly to another location in Canada or over to Europe, but no specifics were mentioned.

On the undercard…

Canadian Lisa Brown pounded out a clear cut unanimous decision over Ana Julaton. Brown was in control right from the start, and really turned it on over the late rounds, consistently finding the mark with heavy left hands.

Julaton battled through cuts around both eyes, suffered during head clashes in the fifth and sixth rounds. Despite the blood, and the punishment absorbed over the late rounds, the personable Julaton kept battling hard and had a smile when the bout ended.

The scores were 100-90, 99-91 and 99-92.

Neven Pajkic became the new Canadian heavyweight champion with a one sided unanimous decision over Greg Kielsa. Pajkic fought with far more energy than his opponent, beating Kielsa to the punch with regularity.

Kielsa landed single shots here and there, but overall his attack was far too sporadic to keep pace with his busier opponent. Scores were 100-90, 99-91, 99-91.

Mexican Fabian Ramirez dropped Justin Fountain of Hamilton twice with right hands en route to an opening round stoppage win. Fountain was clearly hurt by the first knockdown, but was up quickly and gamely fought back before again getting dropped heavily. He made it to his feet just at the count of 10, but was wisely not permitted to continue.

In a battle of well matched Ontario fighters, Stephan Boyd of Toronto won a six round unanimous decision over Jason Douglas. It was close through four, before a surge from Boyd had Douglas in all kinds of trouble in the fifth and the Kitchener fighter fell further behind in the final round when he lost a couple of points for low blows. The scores were 59-53 twice and 57-54.

In the opening bout, Felix Mercedes improved his record to 5-0 with a one sided victory over Ivan Flores of Mexico. Mercedes used a two handed attack to easily take the opening four rounds, although got a little wild and was warned for hitting behind the head at one stage - and also strayed low on a few others.

Mercedes faded a little late, dropping his intensity in the fifth, and had some trouble in the sixth after walking into a hard right hand.

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