Francois Botha

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Francois Botha boxer
Data
Birth Name Francois Johannes Botha
Fight name White buffalo
Weight class Heavyweight
nationality South African
birthday September 28, 1968
place of birth Witbank
style Left delivery
size 1.88 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles 63
Victories 48
Knockout victories 29
Defeats 11
draw 3
No value 1

Francois Botha (born September 28, 1968 in Witbank ) is a former South African boxer and K-1 athlete. He was nicknamed The White Buffalo .

Career

Botha played his first professional boxing match in 1991. On December 9, 1995, he got the chance to fight for the vacant IBF heavyweight title against Axel Schulz . The dispute took place in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart . Botha, who was victorious in 35 previous fights, defeated Schulz just on points. During the doping control , Botha tested positive for anabolic steroids and pain relievers. The fight was not counted and the title was again declared vacant.

Exactly eleven months later, Botha got another chance to box for the IBF title. However, he lost in Las Vegas to Michael Moorer by technical knockout in the twelfth and final round. In the years that followed, Botha fought against Mike Tyson and Shannon Briggs, among others . Against a Mike Tyson in top form he lost by knockout in the fifth round, but tenaciously showed one of his best performances. Against Briggs he boxed a draw. Nevertheless, he was allowed to compete against world champion Lennox Lewis on July 15, 2000 , but was defeated by technical knockout in the second round.

On March 16, 2002 Botha boxed for the last time for a world championship belt. In Stuttgart he got into the ring against WBO title holder Wladimir Klitschko . But he also missed his fourth title chance and lost to a technical knockout on lap eight. His last boxing match for the time being ended four months later in a draw with Clifford Etienne .

From 2003 to 2006 Francois Botha competed 12 times at the K-1 . In his fights he could only win against Jérôme Le Banner and Peter Aerts , but was feared because of his impressive fighting power. After several consecutive defeats, he ended his K-1 career and has been focusing exclusively on boxing again since 2007.

In his comeback fight, he defeated the Australian Bob Mirovic on points on July 6, 2007, but then remained inactive again for more than 1.5 years, and then on February 6, 2009, the American Ron Guerrero in the fight for the vacant world title the little significant World Boxing Foundation (WBF). In his first title defense, he won on May 15, 2009 in Magdeburg against the German Timo Hoffmann with 2-1 by judges' votes. Botha was then signed for three fights by the German SES boxing stable. A fight against Willi Fischer was then planned for October 24, 2009 in Dessau , but Fischer canceled it at short notice due to an injury. Botha boxed against Pedro Carrión instead and defended his title against the Cuban after a controversial verdict (114: 114, 115: 115, 114: 113) in a draw. The WBF confirmed the score.

His next title defense should initially take place on January 16, 2010 in Kampala (Uganda) against the former heavyweight world champion Evander Holyfield . The fight was postponed several times due to financial and organizational difficulties and finally moved to April 10, 2010 in Las Vegas. Botha lost in the fight against the 47-year-old veteran Holyfield by a technical knockout in the eighth round.

After he hadn't won a fight since June 2011, Botha played his last professional fight on March 15, 2014 in Arłamów (Poland) against Andrzej Wawrzyk, whom he lost to a technical knockout.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ COLLECTION OF SPORTS-RELATED CASE-LAW olympic.org 2002 ( Memento of December 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ K-1 World Grand Prix 2004 final
  3. ↑ Botha-Carrion on box-news.de
personal data
SURNAME Botha, Francois
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Botha, Francois Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African boxer and K-1 athlete
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Witbank , South Africa