Julius Indongo

Amatuer career

Indongo first took up boxing at the age of 17. In 2002, he won the amateur Namibian National Championships and he appeared poised for success. However, Indongo was struck by tuberculosis, which interrupted his career for 2 years. After recovering, Indongo qualified to represent his country in the 2008 Olympics. Right before his first fight, Indongo broke his right hand. He decided to fight regardless but was easily outpointed by Anthony Little.

Early career

Indongo debuted professionally at the age of 25, on July 25, 2009, with a points decision (PTS) win over Pohamba Mandume. After winning his first six fights, he won his first regional title, the Namibian lightweight title, by defeating Samuel Kapapu, and retained it against Peter Malakia.

After improving to 14 consecutive wins, he won the WBO Africa light-welterweight title in October 2012 via victory over James Onyango. Indongo went on to make six successful defenses of that title between 2014 and 2016. Indongo was a late bloomer on the world stage, with his first world title fight taking place when he was 33. His trainer, Nestor Tobias, stated that he often needed to be more aggressive and "deliver the killer punch".

Indongo vs. Troyanovsky

Afterwards, Indongo challenged for his first world titles against IBF and IBO light-welterweight champion Eduard Troyanovsky on December 3, 2016, in his first bout held outside Namibia. Despite being a favoured underdog, Indongo knocked out Troyanovsky after only forty seconds of the first round with a left hook, becoming Namibia's fourth world boxing champion.

Indongo vs. Burns

Indongo then challenged WBA champion Ricky Burns in a unification bout on April 15, 2017. Indongo once again fought against home advantage, as the bout took place in Burns' hometown, Glasgow. Indongo dominated the bout, knocking Burns down three times (though all three were deemed slips) before winning via unanimous decision (UD) with scores of 120–108, 118–110, and 116–112. With the win, he captured the WBA title, improved his record to 22–0, and became the first Namibian boxer to unify world titles.

Indongo vs. Crawford

On July 1, 2017 Top Rank announced that a light welterweight unification fight between Indongo and WBC, WBO, Ring magazine, and lineal champion Terence Crawford was agreed to take place on August 19 at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska live on ESPN in US and Sky Sports in the UK. The projected unification of every major world title in boxing (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, The Ring, and lineal) will determine the light welterweight division's first undisputed champion since Kostya Tszyu in 2004, and the first time all the aforementioned titles have been at stake in a single fight since Bernard Hopkins vs. Jermain Taylor in 2005. Both fighters paid over $100,000 US dollars in sanctioning fees. Crawford entered the fight as a heavy favourite to win.

On fight night, Crawford blasted Indongo, knocking him down in the second round before finishing him with a vicious body shot in just three rounds. The fight took place in front of a raucous home crowd for Crawford. Crawford landed 27 total punches to Indongo's 13 and 17 power punches to Indongo's 10. Following the fight, Indongo stated "When he hit me like that, my mind was gone" about Crawford's body shot.