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Jeremiah Nakathila, ahead of the June 12 fight against the American champion Shakur Stevenson seems to be in a great state of mind. Nakathila will be facing the WBO featherweight title winner, Stevenson, at Las Vegas in a 12-round junior lightweight championship.
This will be only the second time Nakathila is going to be in the ring outside of Namibia, his native place. But that has not disintegrated his confidence in anyways— we can sense his belief in himself with whatever he has to say. In an interview, he said, “Stevenson is a great fighter. His game is pretty appreciable; we all have been watching him play like a hero. But now, for the first time in his career, he will face a real African boxing hero. Nakathila says, for Stevenson, this is going to be a fight like never before. Finally, he appreciates WBO for offering him this opportunity to showcase his talent to the world.”
Jeremiah Nakathila's boxing love makes us remember this quote by Mohammad Ali, “I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.” Nakathila has that kind of madness for the sport.
Checkout: Muhammad Ali: The legacy & Life of Legendary Boxer.
Team Nakathila has praised the World Boxing Organization for an interim boxing bout between Shakur Stevenson, the mandatory champion, and Nakathila. The spectacular show will take place on June 12 in Las Vegas at the Virgin Hotels. However, it was only after Jamel Herring, the champion’s unbelievable victory against Carl Frampton, he decided to hold onto his title, and WBO decided to offer the interim title to Nakathila.
While in the beginning, it had been quite frustrating for the team Nakathila to deal with this delay in offering the title opportunity. But now, it has become a thing of praise with WBO announcing the interim title. The journey of frustration over the title has transformed the team’s unwavering conviction to bring the trophy home.
Talking about this, Jeremiah Nakathila, the boxing champion promoter, says that “Nakathila along with the entire team and the African continent as a whole is excitedly waiting for the day. They are pretty sure about the victory. They are also happy about Nakathila getting this opportunity, which he deserved and waited for a long time. Furthermore, he says the team has been eyeing this fight for more than three years, which was delayed because of Stevenson and Valdez moving up from featherweight, where they have taken the spot of Nakathila.”
The last time he fought for the Namibian Jeremiah Nakathila was in December last year, when he played against Emmanuel Amos. Nakathila won the fight by knockout (KO). He has played as a professional athlete for around seven years and fights in the super featherweight division.
The 31-year-old boxer was born on December 17, 1989, in Namibia. He took up his first fight professionally on October 11, 2013, when he was 23 years old.
Name: Jeremiah Nakathila
Sport: Boxing
Born: December 17, 1989 (31 age)
Birthplace: Namibia
Division: super featherweight
Nationality: Namibia
Weight: 130 lb (58,97 kg)
KOs: 80%
Residence: Walvis Bay, Namibia
Total fights: 22
Wins: 21
Losses: 1
The Namibian fighter works as a warrant officer (in a day job). He looks forward to becoming a world champion walking in the footsteps of the countrymen Paulus Ambunda, Harry Simon, and Paulus Moses.
Over his past seven years of a boxing career, Nakathila has garnered much appreciation for his skills & the record of 21-1-0 (wins, losses, and draws). In 2017 he became Africa’s WBO super featherweight champion, and he holds the title currently.
- Nakathila made his debut in native Namibia in 2013. He won the fight defeating David Shinuna via TKO.
- The last victory for the Namibian champion came in 2015, which was fought against Patrick Seiko at Windhoek Country Club Resort.
- The only fight he lost was against Russian Evgeny Chuprakov in 2016.
The June 12 fight against American boxer Shakur Stevenson at Las Vegas in a 12-round junior lightweight championship will be yet another challenge for Nakathila. But his demeanor looks pretty positive & confident. Talking about the upcoming challenge, he says, “Namibia is ready with another champion. We, as a team, have had an eye on every trivial aspect, and we know what is to come. Our team has learned one fact, over the years of fighting with team US, that one should never depend on the final decision in the hands of the judges. This is going to be the 22nd victory of my career.”
Shakur Stevenson, the 23-year-old American professional boxer, is often referred to with the nickname ‘Fearless.’ He has been ranked as number one on WBO and number two on WBC super featherweight rankings. Stevenson is also known for being a former US Silver and Olympic medalist.
Name: Shakur Stevenson
Sport: Boxing
Weight Class: Bantamweight
Height: 5-8
Weight: 123 lbs
DOB: June 28, 1997
Hometown: Newark, N.J.
World Championship: 2014 Youth World Championship, 2013 Junior World Championship,
Youth Olympic Games: 2014 youth Olympic Game Gold medalist
For Stevenson, his boxing career began at the early age of 5 under the guardianship of his grandfather. He had taken up around 140 matches during his amateur career, of which he lost only 13. From the very beginning, he has learned the boxing techniques of the champion that probably took him where he is today.
Checkout: 7 Legendary Fighters & their Boxing Techniques
In his amateur years of career, he has won many titles — In 2013, he won Gold at the Uman Liberation Junior Tournament. In the preceding year, he bought gold playing in the Youth World Championships, the Youth Olympic Games & the Ringside World tournament. Later in 2015, he became the winner of the U.S. Youth National championships. Then, in 2016 Stevenson represented his country in the Olympic games and won a silver medal in Rio.
Stevenson’s professional career started in 2017. At the beginning of his professional career, he signed with Top Rank. Since then, the American boxer had taken up 15 fights, winning one world championship. In 2019, he earned the WBO featherweight championship title. Stevenson, yet again, promises boxing lovers to bring excitement & thrill with his performance in 2021.
Fearless Stevenson, with an undefeated record of 14 matches, is undoubtedly a threat for most boxers. He will take on Nakathila, the Namibian boxer who has lost only one match in his 22 career professional matches— without an iota of doubt, this match is going to be a whole lot of a thrill.
The two champions are ready to fight in a 12 round super featherweight fight for the WBO interim title. One who wins will be fighting the next level match with the current world champion, Jamel Herring, an American boxer.
| Shakur Stevenson vs. Jeremiah Nakathila | 12 rounds | junior lightweight |
| Jose Pedraza vs. Julian Rodriguez | 10 rounds | junior welterweight |
| John Bauza vs. Christon Edwards | 8 rounds | junior welterweight |
| Kasir Goldston vs. Maurice Anthony | 4 rounds | welterweight |
| Xander Zayas vs. Larry Fryers | 6 rounds | welterweight |
| Tyler McCreary vs. Manuel Rey Rojas | 8 rounds | junior lightweight |
| Bryan Lua vs. Frevian Gonzalez | 6 rounds | junior lightweights |
| Troy Isley vs. LaQuan Evans | 4 rounds | middleweight |
| Jahi Tucker vs. Ysrael Barboza | 4 rounds | welterweight |
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