Thomas Oosthuizen stayed undefeated tonight with a rather one-sided win over Rowland Bryant in the Broadway Boxing main event from the Roseland Ballroom in New York, winning on scores of 118-110, 117-111, and 117-111. The fight was fairly pedestrian, with the 6'4" southpaw South African controlling easily with his jab for most of the fight, and Bryant occasionally going for the knockout.
Oosthuizen (20-0-1, 13 KO) showed his durability and ability to take shots from the heavy-handed Bryant (16-2, 11 KO), who got this fight on the strength of an April stoppage win over Librado Andrade. If this fight doesn't tell you just how far the iron-chinned Mexican Andrade has slipped in recent outings, I don't know what really could. Bryant landed some good shots, but just didn't have the same effect on Oosthuizen that he had on Andrade, for any number of reasons, a big one being that Librado is no longer close to a contender.
The 24-year-old Oosthuizen has been in the talks recently for Carl Froch's next fight in November, which could be interesting. It would be a big step for Oosthuizen from the likes of Bryant and Marcus Johnson all the way up to Froch, who has marked his territory as the clear No. 2 super middleweight in the world at the moment, but stylistically it could be a lot of fun.
Oosthuizen benefited tonight from the inexperience of his opponent. Bryant, 32, had never before gone over six rounds, and looked out of his depth for the majority of the bout. He did clearly take the sixth round with a good flurry of hurtful punches, and nicked one or two others, but he never had Oosthuizen out of cruise control, and never made a serious run at winning this fight.