Simba Surprised, Stopped by Veteran Botha at BetLM

JOHANNESBURG —Promis­ing South African heavy­weight Flo Simba was
stopped in the sixth round by vet­eran Fran­cois Botha on Sat­ur­day night for his
first defeat in 11 pro­fes­sional fights.

The 21-year-old Simba was rocked by two big right hands from Botha—21
years his senior—and the ref­eree stepped in soon after with Simba out on his
feet.

Botha, who lost to Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and Evan­der Holy­field in his
career, improved to 48–5 with three draws and one no-contest.

Simba looked to dom­i­nate a seem­ingly out-of-shape Botha early, land­ing his
trade­mark right hook in the first round. But Botha used his expe­ri­ence to ride
Simba’s onslaught and caught the young­ster with two right hands and then a
com­bi­na­tion later in the sixth.