Nakathila eyes world title in 2020

By Michael Uugwanga

JEREMIAH ‘Low-Key’ Nakathila  seems  to have boxing at the top of his mind and his record needs no introduction, following his climb to the top two ranking  in the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) Junior-Light-weight division after winning his last two outing  against  Zoltan Kovacs  of Hungary in Windhoek on 20 April and Zimbabwean boxer Peter Pambeni on 23 November, also in Windhoek.

So far, Nakathila  appears to be the country’s only boxing hopeful to win a world title in 2020, however that will depend on WBO officials if they will be willing to give the Namibian boxer a shot at the world title.

Perhaps  the only boxer standing in his way is American Jamel Semper Fi Herring, the WBO Junior Lightweight  world champion who has held the title since May.

Nakathila boasts a record of 20 fights, 19 wins and one loss, which came against Evgeny Chuprakov of Russia in Russia in 2016. Nakathila was  still an unpolished boxer when the two boxers met in the ring for the WBO Inter-Continental Super-Featherweight title.

Nakathila is currently promoted by renowned promoter Nestor Tobias  of MTC Nestor  ‘Sunshine’  Tobias and Boxing Academy.

In an interview with Confidente Sport this week, the ever-confident  Nakathila  said he would be in the gym, even over the festive season as his title shot could come any time in 2020.

“I had a great year because I fought against top quality boxers (Kovacs  and Pambeni), that is why I’m being ranked second in the world. I’m looking forward to 2020 as I’m expecting bigger things. I’m growing each and every year as a boxer, I keep on improving in my training and I’m also working harder every day in training. Even as we are speaking now I’m just from Virgin Active Gym. Next year anything can come up. That’s why I have to be ready every day.”

If Nakathila is to get a title shot, such a fight would mostly likely be staged in the U.S.A., a country where Namibian boxers have failed to win any title yet, but that should not be a problem to Nakathila.

The former WBO, International Boxing Organisation (IBO), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Association (WBA) Super-Lightweight world champion Julius Indongo lost to American Terence Crawford in 2017, before he went on to lose to Regis Prograis.

Another boxer Paulus ‘Hitman’ Moses also lost in the U.S.A. to Raymundo Beltran in 2018, while two other Namibian pugilists Paulus  Ambunda and Walter Kautondokwa all went to the U.S.A only to return empty-handed.

Ambunda lost his IBO Super-Bantamweight world title to Stephen Fulton in April, while Kautondokwa lost to Demetrius Andrade in their WBO middleweight world title bout.

“At the moment I cannot single out the boxers I would like to fight in my division, but all I can say is that I’m ready to fight any top guy or champion in my division. I like to fight anywhere.

“You look at Pambeni (who defeated Albinus Danny-Boy Felesianus) in Namibia. I also want to break a record of Pambeni when he came to win in Namibia against Danny-Boy. He (Pambeni) was an African champion before our fight. I, therefore, want to show the world that we can also end that losing streak in the U.S.A,” he said.