Sonny Bill Williams and Quade Cooper both won their boxing bouts on Friday with SBW claiming the WBA International heavyweight title.
World Cup-winning All Black Williams survived a whirlwind finish from veteran South African Frans Botha to land the vacant title with a unanimous points decision in Brisbane.
The ringside judges gave him the fight 97-91, 98-94, 97-91 over the 10 rounds.
Williams was holding on in the final round as 44-year-old Botha, dubbed the "White Buffalo", went after him with heavy blows.
27-year-old Williams who remains unbeaten in six fights, is due to play in Australia's National Rugby League this year with the Sydney Roosters.
Botha's record now stands at 48-10-3. Botha was left fuming after the bout. Cut short from the original 12 rounds to 10, Williams looked in control for most of the fight.
The South African, however, was furious with officials after the decision was made to shorten the bout, with the 44-year-old looking to have worn out Williams by the end of the 10th.
"You know I love Sonny Bill, I think he's a great guy, a gentleman, but this was bullshit," the 115kg Botha said in an interview after the fight.
"If you look at the crowd, you know who won. You've got to win fair and square, not with the advantage of the judges, you've got to fight. According to me I won, hands-free."
Wallabies fly-half Cooper won his first professional fight on the same fight card in a first-round knockout of fellow Australian Barry Dunnett.
Cooper landed a right hook high on Dunnett's head to send his opponent crashing to the canvas inside the opening round of his scheduled four-round cruiserweight bout.
Comments
Trinats2 says...
Rugby site or boxing site ?
Williams doesn't even play rugby, he boxes and plays league, sure he once played rugby, so on that where's the coverage of the ladies cricket ? Aus won against the poms in the Woman's WC. Couple of the girls haven't played rugby since school days but surely this also qualifies !!! Or is it just Williams lol.
While I'm here I'll have my 20 cents worth. Just like France were robbed in the final (rugby !) Botha was robbed. Why do kiwis always win with controversy hanging over them ? Have to say Williams is as overrated in boxing as he was in rugby. Did Williams play in the RWC ? To have an over the hill dinosaur kick your butt must be embarrassing.
Can't wait for the rematch and the PR report on that one !
And just for you QC haters, Cooperman also KO'd a couple of his sparing partners in the weeks leading up.
RUGBY news
On a sad note, Reds lost their first preseason game in 3 years last night on the sunny coast, could have done with Cooper !!!! Or even Geina, Horwill ........
Actually if they have of held onto the ball on two occasions they would have been alright.
Posted 22:29 08th February 2013
ben7 says...
THIS IS THE ONLY WEBSITE THAT SAYS SBW DESERVED TO WIN. EVERYTHING ELSE i rREAD SAYS THAT BOTHA DOMINATED HIM. FEEL SORRY FOR BOTHA ABOUT THE TWO MISSING ROUNDS. SOUNDS TO ME LIKE THEY STOPPED IT COZ SBW WASS TIRED AND LOSING
Posted 22:06 08th February 2013
NHsaints says...
Botha is right, SBW shouldn't have won that, had it been 12 rounds it is likely Botha would have had a 11th or 12th round KO, SBW doesn't deserve the title of 'undefeated' until he actually fights a decent opponent under fair conditions. Cooper would have had an easy draw thanks to his status as a rugby player so no surprises there.
Posted 21:27 08th February 2013
isthatrightref says...
@ rugby_lord... the headline makes it pretty obvious what it's about so if it's not something you want to read about... DON'T FREAKING WELL READ IT.
@ Herbman & others... hadn't you already worked out that pro boxing in this part of the world is about as credible as WWE 'wrestling'? Or maybe the ref was feeling the effects of Botha tagging him twice in the 9th :-) Either way it sets up the bad blood rematch/ big payday nicely, provided of course enough mugs don't see it for what it was, is & always will be.
Posted 20:43 08th February 2013
Stellenbosched2 says...
Hi PR,
Not a great day for you I'm afraid. Your NZ bias shines through guys.
Posted 19:19 08th February 2013
2eyedkiwi says...
No question that SBW was well ahead on points when the fight ended. Any sane judge could only have given Botha the first and last round. However, the White Buffalo was completely robbed, as he would have had SBW early in the scheduled 11th. Can't wait to hear the reason why it changed.
@philipjfry - you are absolutely right. You know nothing about boxing.
@herbman and jaystarr - spot on
Posted 18:59 08th February 2013
2eyedkiwi says...
No question that SBW was well ahead on points when the fight ended. Any sane judge could only have given Botha the first and last round. However, the White Buffalo was completely robbed, as he would have had SBW early in the scheduled 11th. Can't wait to hear the reason why it changed.
@philipjfry - you are absolutely right. You know nothing about boxing.
@herbman and jaystarr - spot on
Posted 18:59 08th February 2013
kitch says...
sbw is a self seeking egotistical joke and should be highly embarrassed at being declared the winner of this fight!
james smith who is a world renownd boxing guru said before the fight that "the people who sbw is boxing amounts to nothing more than a circus"..and he pretty much got beaten by the clown!!.. he also said "this is a fight between someone well past his prime and someone who cant box".... he said that at the moment he is scouting for potential talent and sbw is nowhere on the radar and he has seen 21yr olds in tanzania who would knock sbw out in 2 rounds!!
botha was slow and lacked power but all respect to the man bc i for one didnt think he would last.. in fact he clearly outlasted sbw and given 2 more rounds i have no doubt he wouldve knocked sbw down!!
sbw showed he had fast hands but also showed he had no clues no power and no endurance.. your typical gym bunny!! His arrogance showed in round 8 where botha hit sbw on the bell and sbw decided to carry on.. much like his rugby days esp the game against ireland where he carried on like a pork chop and not even the ref or his captain could pull him back.
im glad this circus is out of the ABs and out of rugby..having nearly been knocked out by an old man he should give up but i hope he stays so botha can get a fair chance to knock him on his ass before the judges can save him!!
Posted 18:57 08th February 2013
TheGreatOne says...
Typical PR, conveniently edit out the fact that it was supposed to be a 12 round fight but they changed it to 10 mid-fight as soon as it became clear $BW was going to get KOd. Just like the Bryce Lawrence fixing scandal involving Aussies and Kiwis and PR just papers over it and pretends it never happened.
Posted 16:39 08th February 2013
TheGreatOne says...
RIGGED. They change the bout to 10 rounds fro 12 mid-fight because SBW starts getting hammered. As usual, PR conveniently leaves that out. And to think there are clowns on here who think there is no match fixing in rugby. Even the Aussie and NZ press say the result was a farce.
Posted 16:26 08th February 2013
JayStarr says...
In all my years of watching boxing I have never seen a fight cut short from 12 rounds to 10 rounds mid-fight. Actually it wasn't mid-fight, Botha's corner was only told at the end of the 9th round that the next round will now be the last - i.e. at the end of the round in which Botha was starting to punish SBW. It's a joke. There is no doubt in my mind that the WBA will at the very least order a rematch. And when they do Botha will put SBW on the mat.
Hopefully Quade Cooper's next opponent has arms a bit longer than a T-Rex's, so then hopefully he will end up on the mat too...
Posted 16:24 08th February 2013
rugby_lord says...
Is this a rugby or a boxing site? This does not belong here.
Posted 14:50 08th February 2013
philipjfry says...
I know nothing about boxing but I'm sure Botha lost because of poor refereeing.
Posted 14:50 08th February 2013
Herbman says...
I saw this fight, what a farce... how can the ref just all of a sudden say at the beginning of the 10th that it's the last round when it was scheduled for 12? SBW was hanging by a thread, done for. I'm not disputing he won on points... but even any Kiwi supporter who saw the fight must surely agree he wouldn't have lasted another round.
Posted 14:17 08th February 2013
rugby_rockstar says...
The inclusion of this article on a rugby website just goes to show that the IRB have got it wrong about punch ups on the rugby pitch. It's what the fans what to see and read about. ;)
Posted 13:43 08th February 2013