By Paul Upham: Seconds Out

IBF Pan Pacific junior welterweight champion Lovemore Ndou (pictured) overcame a family tragedy this week to defeat Argentine Cesar Alberto Leiva 38-6 (19) by seventh round knockout on Friday night at the Panthers World of Entertainment in Penrith, Australia. Ndou’s sister passed away during the week in South Africa after a battle with cancer and the hard-hitting IBF No.12 was understandably not his usual outgoing self in the dressing room before the fight.

Once entering the ring however, an aggressive Ndou seemed to be at his best, throwing lightening fast combinations. Watching the action from ringside, ANBF President Brad Vocale marvelled at the “Black Panther’s” hand speed remarking, “if he throws his punches any faster his gloves will come flying off!”

Ndou, 34-5-1 (21), dropped 32 year-old Leiva with a solid body shot in the second round. An experienced campaigner who had only been previously stopped once in his career and whose only losses have come at the hands of world rated boxers Omar Weis and Wilfredo Vilches, the Argentine worked hard to get himself back into the contest in the middle rounds before being dropped with another Ndou body rip. Referee Charlie Lucas counting him out at the 2:53 minute mark in the seventh round.

“Hopefully in my next fight, my mind will be more clear. People can expect a better performance,” said a sombre Ndou, in his dressing room after the fight. “I won the fight, but I know I could have done better than that. At my best I feel I could have stopped him in one or two rounds.”

While Ndou was critical of his performance, not everyone felt that he was disappointing in victory.

“I predicted a win between round seven and tonight and I am ecstatic with his performance,” said manager Stuart Duncan.

The 31 year-old Ndou is scheduled to return to the ring again in September at the Panthers World of Entertainment on a card promoted by Roy Alexander, before hopefully travelling to the USA for a spot on the Dan Goossen promoted Holyfield-Toney card in Las Vegas on October 4. Duncan and Ndou would not reveal the name of the potential opponent, only saying that he is very well known throughout the boxing world.

With such a busy schedule, this reporter asked Ndou whether he still had time for the challenge he had extended to English power puncher WBC No.3 Ricky Hatton earlier this week?

“The door is always open for Ricky Hatton,” said Ndou, finally with a smile on his face. “He should have taken me on tonight when my mind wasn’t perfect. Maybe he would have stood a better chance of beating me. But on any given day, I feel that I will take Ricky Hatton out. There is always space there for Ricky. I will always accommodate him.”

Ndou will now travel with his wife and children to South Africa over the weekend to attend his sister’s funeral. The two-week stay will be Ndou’s first visit to his home country since he immigrated to Australia in 1996.

Lovemore's manager Stuart Duncan told Eastside today that the Ndou camp are not under estimating Leiva. "Lovemore is expecting this guy to come to fight. He is after a rating to get his career on track-just as Lovemore needs the win. Cesar is going to be a tough, fit opponent".

Duncan also said the Roy Alexander trained Ndou has a fight lined up in the U.S in October and that he is "fiercely chasing a fight with Ricky Hatton"for his fighter, last in action in March- scoring an eight round Tech. Dec. over Damian Fuller in Mississippi.

He was boxing one of Tszyu's sparring partners, a coyote thin, cactus tough Mexican named Jose Luis Juarez outdoors in San Jacinto, California, before a crowd eating hot chilli peppers in the blistering sun.

Juarez started fast and scored a knockdown in the third round, but Lovemore rallied to dominate the middle stages before Juarez decked him again in the ninth to win a close decision.

After he got up the first time, N'Dou fought back with the burning hunger in his eyes that he's had ever since he was a barefoot kid on the dusty, red streets in Messina, a copper mining town in South Africa.

But as N'Dou was heading to the deck for the second time in that fight he had a blinding revelation.

He realised his future lay, not in the lightweight division, but 2.5kg heavier as a 63.5kg fighter to rival junior-welterweight champ Kostya Tszyu.

"Making the weight was killing me," said N'Dou, who hopes to advance a step further to fighting Tszyu with a win over Argentine Cesar Alberto Leiva at Penrith Panthers next Friday night.

"I got up as high as No. 2 in the world as a lightweight but fighting Juarez in the sun showed me that I was hurting myself more than my opponents by boiling down."

These days N'Dou, 31, combines training with coach Roy Alexander every day with his studies at UTS for a degree in communications.

His preparations for the Leiva fight have been hampered by daily visits to hospital for the past five days as his daughter Marion, 2, has been fighting her own battle with a bacterial infection."She is on the mend now," said N'Dou, a father of three, "but it is very worrying when you have small children and they get sick."It is hard to stay focused when you know you have a very hard fight on your hands against a world-class boxer in a few days."

Leiva has won 38 of 43 fights and has a win over Alberto Cortes, conqueror of former world champ Lester Ellis.

N'Dou is not shy when it comes to pushing his title claims and at the Danny Green-Jason De Lisle fight at Panthers on June 2 walked straight up to Tszyu, who was dining ringside, and asked: "When are you going to give me a shot at the title."

"Kostya just laughed," N'Dou said, "we go back a long way together and I sparred dozens of rounds with him over the years.

"But boxing is a business and while I think Kostya is a really great guy I would still love to fight him because I believe I can win. I would be a much tougher challenge than his last opponent, Jesse James Leija, and as the IBF Pan Pacific champion I qualify for a title fight."

N'Dou, who has 33 wins and a draw in 39 starts, is looking to regain the sort of form he had when he stopped two-time world title challenger Renato Cornett in 2000.

Remarkably, the man helping him get there is Cornett's former trainer Roy Alexander, the one-time middleweight champ, who was in Cornett's corner when he battled IBF lightweight champ Paul Spadafora.

"Boxing is a strange game," N'Dou said. "You can be mortal enemies one week and the next you are working together like brothers." Next Friday's card also sees Lawrence Tauasa defend his national cruiserweight title against former champ Jamie Wallace.

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