Lovemore Ndou

Fight career

Lovemore was born in Musina, South Africa, and started boxing at the age of 16. He had a successful amateur career of 68 fights with 66 wins and 2 losses, where he was a four-time South African champion in four consecutive years. He could not compete on an international level as South Africa then was banned from international competition due to its practice of Apartheid.

Ndou made his professional debut in 1993 against Enoch Khuzwayo in Johannesburg, South Africa winning on a points decision.

In his 13th professional fight in August 1995, Ndou fought for the South African Super Featherweight Title against Mthobeli Mhlophe with the contest ending in a draw. After that bout Ndou left South Africa and migrated to settle in Australia beginning a run of 17 consecutive victories from May 1996 to June 2000 rising to a world WBC #2 ranking, before a loss in a 10-round unanimous points decision against former WBC International champion Guillermo Mosquera.

After the loss to Mosquera, Ndou lost motivation and fought rarely with only 3 fights in 2 years before heading to the United States for 3 fights during 2002 culminating in 2 losses.

Ndou won his first major professional title on 29 November 2002 defeating Sarit Saeknaew by TKO to claim the IBF Pan Pacific Light Welterweight Title at Festival Hall in Melbourne. During 2003, Ndou made three successful defences of his IBF Pan Pacific Light Welterweight Title before an IBF World Light Welterweight Title bout against Sharmba Mitchell on 7 February 2004 in Atlantic City, USA. Ndou lost the bout against Mitchell via a unanimous points decision.

Following the loss to Mitchell, Ndou returned to Australia to defend his IBF Pan Pacific Light Welterweight Title twice before heading to Las Vegas, Nevada, USA to fight Miguel Angel Cotto for the WBC International Light Welterweight Title and WBA Fedelatin Light Welterweight Title on 8 May 2004 with Ndou again losing via a unanimous points decision. Ndou closed out 2004 retaining his IBF Pan Pacific Light Welterweight Title against Ruben Francisco Silva Diaz in Sydney.

Ndou began 2005 with a 12 rounds unanimous points loss to Junior Witter at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, USA for the Commonwealth Light Welterweight Title. Over the next 18 months following the loss to Witter, Ndou defended his IBF Pan Pacific Light Welterweight Title on four occasions to rise to the world IBF #1 Light Welterweight ranking at the start of 2007.

On 4 February 2007 in Sydney, Ndou fought in the Australian Fight of the Year and defeated Naoufel Ben Rabah in an IBF World Light Welterweight Title Eliminator for the right to meet current title holder Ricky Hatton, after Hatton had won the title against Juan Urango in Las Vegas, USA two weeks earlier. Hatton however refused the IBF's demand that he fight Ndou for the IBF World Light Welterweight Title, instead scheduling a fight against José Luis Castillo. Following Hatton's decision, the IBF stripped Hatton of the IBF World Light Welterweight Title, awarding Ndou the title on 12 February 2007. Ndou lost his first title defense on 16 June 2007 against American Paul Malignaggi in Uncasville, Connecticut, USA.

After that bout Ndou stayed in America and worked as the main sparring partner for Floyd Mayweather for his bout against Ricky Hatton. While waiting to fight Malignaggi again he knocked out Rafael Ortiz in the 7th round as a stay busy fight. On 24 May 2008, Lovemore got his rematch against Malignaggi. The bout was fought as the main supporting bout to the Ricky Hatton vs. Juan Lazcano bout at the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, United Kingdom. The bout was a much different one from their first encounter, with Malignaggi taking the lead a lot more and N'dou playing the role of counter-puncher. CompuBox Punchstats showed that Ndou landed 23% of his punches, while Malignaggi connected with 17%. In the end the Malignaggi again won the bout, this time by a close split decision.