Junior Ilunga Makabu vs Thabiso Mchunu full fight breakdown
On January 29 in America, WBC World cruiserweight champion Junior Ilunga Makabu (28-2, 25KOs) defends his green and gold belt for a second time to newest challenger and former rival Thabiso Mchunu (23-5, 13KOs).
Promoted by Don King, the double-header – which also features a WBA World heavyweight title clash between champion Trevor Bryan and unbeaten challenger Jonathan Guidry – takes place at the Packard Music Hall in Ohio, which has seen the likes of Earnie Shavers perform in the past.
Presently, the Congolese champion is set at 1.61 with Betway to defend his title, and the South African challenger has a chance of 2.25 of dethroning the long-reigning ruler.
West African Makabu has been the dominant champion for two years now and could be in line for a career-defining fight with Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez if he can retain his title. The pound-for-pound superstar is chasing greatness by aiming to become a five-weight world champion, so whoever holds the WBC 200lbs bauble will be his next target and recipient of a career-best payday.
South African Mchunu couldn’t be any closer as a match for the champion. At crusierweight, Makabu is the WBC World titlist, Mchunu is the WBC Silver champ; Makabu is rated second by Ring Magazine, Mchunu is fourth; Makabu is third with the Transnational Boxing Rankings and Mchunu is next in line at fourth – the challenger is hot on his heels everywhere!
And they’ve crossed paths before. Both southpaws first met back in 2015 in a WBC Eliminator, which Makabu won via 11th-round KO.
Trained by Sean Smith, Mchunu started far sharper, outjabbing Makabu with ease as the pair stood in the pocket. Junior eventually warmed up midway through the contest, after losing nearly every one of the first six rounds, and began working Thabiso to the body, slowly, gradually outlanding and outworking his tiring opponent, who was well ahead on points but fading under the proliferating pressure.
Despite being ahead, Mchunu was systematically worn down by the bigger man and hurt more and more frequently as the rounds went on. An enthused Makabu became relentless and spiteful, and finally finished the weary warrior in the 11th round. At that point, one judge had it even, another had Mchunu ahead by one round, and the third scored it 97-94 to Mchunu.
Since that dramatic display, Makabu has won nine from 10, with seven knockouts, and competed in six title fights, three of those being world title contests, whereas Mchunu can only boast about being on a four-fight win streak.
The latter is not to be undermined, however, because Mchunu first avenged a defeat in the very next fight to once-beaten, two-weight IBO World titlist Thomas Oosthuizen to win two African titles; then he retired his next opponent in two rounds, quicker than Callum Johnson managed, who took nine rounds; but then came two impressive wins against Denis Lebedev to claim the vacant WBC Silver title, which he defended against unbeaten Russian sensation Evgeny Tishchenko in his own back yard in Ekaterinburg, which takes some doing.
Both his last two title wins were wide unanimous decisions; one scorecard in the Lebedev fight gave every round to Mchunu, and one Russian judge gave all but one round against Tishchenko.
It’s also worth noting that only six fights ago, Mchunu stopped Ricards Bolotniks, who went on to win the Golden Contract tournament just a few years later, resulting in a seven-fight winning run for the Latvian. It was world-ranked Brit Joshua Buatsi who ended that streak with an 11th round TKO last August, requiring five more rounds than Thabiso.
Rewinding the clock over three decades, Makabu incredibly lost in his pro debut in 2008 by knockout in 29 seconds! Fortunately, that devastating defeat didn’t deter him from fighting on and he bounced back with back-to-back first-round knockouts in the same year, and his first 13 victories all came via knockout.
His only other loss was the notable defeat to Tony Bellew in 2016, where he started slowly, as per usual, but managed to surprise the Evertonian with a quick left backhand at the end of the opening round to put him on the seat of his pants. The second stanza was fairly even, but ‘Bomber’ Bellew threw caution to the wind and unloaded everything he had to trap Makabu on the ropes in round three. Makabu made the mistake of fighting fire with fire and was chinned, ending his world title dreams momentarily, but he dusted himself of and rebuilt remarkably to win the WBC belt that eluded him the first time around under four years later.
Makabu hits incredibly hard, it’s his biggest threat, and Mchunu is the slicker fighter. Both boxers are volume punchers with weaknesses in their defence, so each one is going to open up, get hit and sustain some damage.
They know each other well, having shared 11 rounds together in the past, and they are both coming into the fight with a handful of equally impressive wins behind them.
The fight is expected to go much the same way as the first one did, with Mchunu being the more likely of the two to gain an early lead on the scorecards. He claims to have learnt from his mistakes, stating that he went for the knockout and gassed in the first fight, and promises to be smarter and more mature in the rematch.
Makabu is expected to come on stronger as the fight goes on, utilising his exceptional gas tank and power during the later rounds.
If the contest reaches the final bell, which two from three of Makabu’s last fights have done, then it’s very possible the belt could be changing hands. But the champion is going to be a threat from the first to the last, so if the contest makes it to the championship rounds, you can image the challenger being put under immense pressure like before, and we all saw how that went.
The question is whether the challenger can box smart and endure to win on points or if the champion can repeat history by turning up the heat to force another stoppage victory – either way it’s going to be a felicitous treat for fight fans to find out that answer.
Verdict: Makabu to win between rounds 9-12.
Stats
Makabu
Age: 34
Bouts: 30
Rounds: 141
KOs: 83.33%
Height: 6’ 0”
Reach: 74”
Stance: Southpaw
Mchunu
Age: 33
Bouts: 28
Rounds: 197
KOs: 46.43%
Height: 5’ 11”
Reach: 72 ½”
Stance: Southpaw
World Rankings
Makabu
WBC Champion
Ring Magazine #2
TBRB #3
Mchunu
WBC #1
WBO #2
Ring Magazine #4
TBRB #4
HÖRFA are proud sponsors of British Boxing News