Salam stuns Gonorenda to win WBF title

It was sweet revenge for Nigerian challenger, Tony ‘Sugar’ Salam as he defeated champion, Chomunorwa “Sting” Gonorenda of Zimbabwe to claim the World Boxing Federation African Cruiser-weight title at the Kwesé and Kalakoda Boxing Promotions “Chaos in Lagos” at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos in the early hours of Saturday.
Salam was denied victory when both fighters met at the Harare International Conference Centre on August 31. Fans of the 35-year-old Nigerian felt that Salam won seven of 10 rounds but was left disappointed at the decision of the judges who gave victory to Gonorenda.
However, there was no denying the Nigerian this time as he knocked out the Zimbabwean in the sixth round after a combination of blows to the body and head,  which left the former champion dazed as the referee stopped the fight to save Gonorenda from more punishment.
The Zimbabwean looked subdued after the fight and his record now stands at 12 wins and 13 losses while London-based Salam improved his record to 12-2 with 7 knockouts.

Salam who hugged his adversary after the fight thanked everyone that has helped him get this far, promising to do more in his career and called out other boxers in the cruiser-weight category with many suggesting he was throwing a challenge to his compatriot Olanrewaju Durodola who beat Maroy Sadiki from the Democratic Republic of Congo by technical knock out to win the vacant World Boxing Federation World Cruiser-weight Title in one of the other cards of the night.

Sadiki, who lost to Durodola in their first meeting in Ghana last year, twisted his ankle and could not continue in the second round.

Durodola represented Nigeria at the 2008 Olympics, and and is a former World Boxing Council (WBC) Continentals Americas Cruiserweight and WBC Silver Cruiserweight champion.