It was a knockout festival of boxing at “Bombs Away”

Thulani “Tulz” Mbenge (14-0, 11 knockouts) is the new IBO welterweight champion, after he stopped Diego Chaves (26-4-1, 22 knockouts) from Argentina 36 seconds into round seven.

The much anticipated vacant title fight, dubbed the “bombs away” since Golden Gloves promotions boss Rodney Berman announced the fight earlier this year, took place at Emperors Palace on Saturday night.

The fight began on a high as Chaves started jabbing from the first second of the first round, indicating to his opponent that he came to fight with intent.

Mbenge also did not waste any time throwing blows on the body while looking at his opponent very closely, slowly sizing him with his long arms.

However, that seemed not to bother Chaves as he kept coming forward in the first two rounds.

From then on Chaves’ work rate slowed down, especially from round four. In round six Chaves was saved by the bell as he beat the referees count in the last seconds of round after Mbenge sent him to the floor.

The Argentine’s sluggish body language suggested that he could not take anymore punches and was just not in the mood to continue, but his corner seem to believe he could bounce back as they screamed and shouted for him to continue fighting. Eventually referee Deon Dwarte came to his rescue at the start of round seven, declaring the fight to be over.

Mbenge could not hold back the smiles every time he looked outside the ring at the end of each round, to acknowledge his fans as they sang, cheered and called his name.

Mbenge looked in shape with the muscular built and showed his power every time he threw a punch at Chaves who was ultimately caught with an uppercut that sent him to the canvas.

“I dedicate this to you, mama,” said an excited Mbenge during his post-bout interview with SuperSport.

He also thanked his trainer Sean Smith for his excellent victory.

In another exciting show on the bill, hard punching Thabiso Mchunu took on Ricards Bolotniks from Latvia in a cruiserweight division match-up.

Mchunu boxed his man carefully and did not show his power in the early rounds. During the latter rounds he stopped Bolotniks with an uppercut in two minutes twenty seconds of round six to prove that he is back.