ROGERS MTAGWA KO10 (1:20) TOMAS VILLA

Some fights live up to expectations and some surpass them, and we can put Rogers Mtagwa’s knockout win over Tomas Villa in the latter category.

This fight reminded me of why I love boxing and why I have invested so much time in it over the years. It was simply incredible, one of the most action-packed, exciting and dramatic bouts I have ever seen.

In the preview I suggested that this couldn’t fail to be a terrific fight but I never thought we would be witness to a mini-epic.

These two featherweights are short of world-class skills but long on heart and toughness.

The last two rounds were unforgettable. Down in the ninth and teetering on the precipice of defeat, Mtagwa somehow rallied to blast Villa out of the fight with three knockdowns in 80 seconds in the 10th and final round.

All through the fight the two men had been bombing away, giving and taking. It might have been the greatest war ever fought on the Telefutura network. Mtagwa, the Tanzanian from Philadelphia, had Villa wobbling in the first round but got rocked and hurt himself before the round was over as the Mexican warrior from Texas came slugging back.

This pattern continued for round after amazing round. At times Mtagwa staggered alarmingly, as if he couldn’t keep his legs under him, yet he rallied every time it seemed he was in danger of being overpowered.

They battered each other to head and body, with Mtagwa occasionally going to a jabbing style, which actually worked very well for him — but it wasn’t long before he was winging haymakers again, either because this is his nature or because Villa’s relentless pressure was forcing him to bang back.

I tell you, I marvelled at the heart and the endurance of these fighters.

When Mtagwa went down on his back from a right hand in the ninth, it looked almost all over, even though he dragged himself up. Mtagwa looked exhausted and he was falling all over the place, barely able to stand, as Villa slammed big punches at him. Referee Rocky Burke must have been close to intervening — many referees probably would have — but he realised that even in his parlous state, Mtagwa still had his wits about him and was showing a fighter’s instinct to try to hang on until the storm abated, a floundering fighter who refused to sink out of sight. Burke’s judgment was justified because, as Villa seemed to grow arm-weary from his mighty efforts to end the fight, so Mtagwa came back with shots of his own, dredging up the will from who knows where to launch a counter attack.

It looked as if Mtagwa’s handlers were on the verge of pulling him out, because he looked almost totally spent, but he was allowed to leave his corner for the last round. Surely Villa would run right over the battered Mtagwa in the 10th, I thought — but no, it was the African boxer who landed a big right after the Mexican fighter had missed with a right hand of his own. Suddenly, in an instant, the fight had changed as Villa went down. Now it was Villa who was in desperate trouble, and Mtagwa went after him, hurling huge swings and hooks. Two more knockdowns — the last two coming in quick succession — had referee Burke waving the finish.

Seldom can a seeming lost cause have been turned into a victory as suddenly or as sensationally. Hanging on by a thread in the ninth, Mtagwa changed everything with that one right hand at the start of the 10th. I must confess I thought he would need a miracle to save the day. Guess what? Miracles do happen, as long as a boxer keeps fighting and keeps trying to win, right to the bitter end, as Mtagwa did in this unforgettable fight.