RSSIsaac Hlatshwayo
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Holt Shines, Alvarez Squeaks By
In a battle of undefeated welterweights in the co-feature, Shamone Alvarez won an eight-round majority decision over Enrique Gutierrez. Photo: Ed Mulholland/Showtime
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – In an exciting, hard-fought bout, once-beaten Kendall “Rated R” Holt dealt previously undefeated Isaac Hlatshwayo his first loss and captured the vacant North American Boxing Organization (NABO) super lightweight title with a super impressive, 12-round unanimous decision in Friday’s main event on “ShoBox : The New Generation.” Holt scored three knockdowns and won going away.
In a battle of unbeaten welterweights on the Duva Boxing-promoted co-feature at Bally’s Casino Ballroom, Shamone Alvarez was credited with a flash knockdown in the first-round en route to winning a majority eight-round decision over fast-closing Enrique Gutierrez. The doubleheader aired on SHOWTIME at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast).
Holt (21-1, 13 KO’s) of Paterson, N.J., was making his first start in 14 months, but he showed no signs of ring rust. He dropped the world-ranked Hlatshwayo once in the ninth, 11th and 12 rounds en route to winning by the scores of 119-106 twice and 116-109.
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Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Hlatshwayo-Holt to Battle on Nov 3
NEW YORK – A humble, soft-spoken young man and dedicated Christian, Issac “The Angel” Hlatshwayo was a choirboy when he was young. However, he was no angel.
One of five children, Hlatshwayo was a street fighting kid.
“I used to provoke guys to get them to fight me,” Hlatshwayo said. “It was just a matter of me enjoying fighting.”
For a time, none of his relatives were quite sure how to handle the baby-faced boy brawler, whose passion for pavement punching began when he started beating up the neighborhood kids in the poor community where he was born in South Africa. Ultimately, however, his grandmother would step in.
“It was my Granny who motivated me to get started in boxing and join a boxing club,” Hlatshwayo said. “She thought it would help discipline me. In the African tradition, it is the grandmother who is the grand matriarch of the family, and whose word commands a great deal of respect.
“I had been getting into a lot of tough street fights and Granny was not happy with me. She persuaded my parents to allow me to join an amateur boxing club. It was all over after that. Once I got that smell of the leather and the liniment in my nostrils, there was no looking back.”
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