Brandon Thysse wins Trilogy with brutal body blow

Roarke Knapp sunk to his knees in round nine after taking a perfectly executed left hook to the body following a period of sustained Thysse pressure.

After defeating Shervantaigh Koppman in the semifinals of the Sole Survivor tournament and Knapp in the final, Thysse said he had something to prove to himself.

"I think I brought my grit, and at the end of the night it came down to who wanted it more and I think I had something to prove to myself and everyone here. I've got my revenge against Koopman and Knapp and I'm the sole survivor, I'm the last one standing, it's two out of two now," Thysse said.

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The SA Junior Middleweight Champion approached his third tussle with a slightly different mentality and game plan, one that he is not always credited for possessing.

"We didn't wanna come in and make it a war, we've had that before as you saw with the second fight but you know we also wanted to show that everyone thinks I'm this brawler, this street fighter, and I wanted to show that I can still box," he added.

The tactician and trainer behind Brandon Thysse, Damien Durandt believed that Thysse has had a tendency to make fights harder for himself, which is why they agreed to return to basics and fight behind the jab.

"I think tonight what I said to Brandon is that I believe in his boxing abilities and sometimes Brandon likes to make the fight hard for himself and I said let's get back to your boxing, let's work behind your jabs and everything will fall into place and he stuck to it, back to basics."

On a night which Durandt saw both of his fighters successfully defend their titles, he admits Brandon Thysse has a burning desire to test himself in international bouts after fighting everyone in South African boxing and avenging his losses against Koopman and Knapp en route to becoming the sole survivor.

The Thysse vs Knapp trilogy main event delivered elite level boxing on a memorable night that featured the rise of young heavyweight phenoms, exciting featherweights and a fight of the night between two cousins at Emperors Palace.