Rayton Okwiri, an Olympian from Kenya, lost his bid for the IBF International Junior Middleweight title on Thursday night in Johannesburg, Gauteng, to Emmany Kalombo of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Kenyan claimed an injury to one of his right-hand fingers prevented him from continuing the fight, although the bout only went as far as the fifth round before Kalombo won through TKO.
In the opening round, it appeared as though the former African Boxing Union super middleweight champion would easily dispatch the Congolese fighter, but Kalombo eventually caught up with him.
Okwiri was aiming to become the first Kenyan male boxer to hold a major world title after Fatuma Zarika became the first Kenyan to fly to the world top professional arena in 2016, when she beat Jamaica’s Alicia Ashley to the WBC super-bantamweight title.
Prior to this fight on Thursday, Kalombo had fought Chikondi Makawa of Malawi, who was knocked out three times in round three and forced an automatic stoppage on April 24 in Soweto. Okwiri’s most recent fight was in October of last year, when he stopped John Serunjogi of Uganda in the eighth round of their ten-round non-title contest in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
