Okaka's win gives Kenya hope for glory at World Championships

Robert Okaka (in red) and Tunisian Youssef Rafrafi (in blue). [Ben Ahenda Standard]

National light heavyweight champion Robert Okaka is on the path to making history after making it to the money bracket of the Elite World Men Boxing Championships in Dubai.

Okaka cruised into the quarter-finals of the global championships after stopping Youssef Rafrafi of Tunisia in the third round of the light-heavyweight duel through the referee stop the contest (RSC) rule which assured him of at least Sh1.2 million before he fights for a semi-final slot.

Okaka overwhelmed his opponent and the referee had to stop the match to save the Tunisian from further punishment.

It was a match the Kenyan fighter boxed with precision from the first to the last round knowing very well the prize ahead of him on reaching these levels of the global showpiece.

In the ring, Okaka subjected the North African to ferocious jabs from the start, which subjected him to three standing mandatory counts in different rounds of the bout.

At some point, Okaka landed Rafrari on the canvas in the second round, a development that convinced the judges the Kenyan fighter was on his path to the required victory.

He was too good for the Tunisian in all the three rounds and therefore won the hearts of all the five judges in the fight for top honours.

At the end of it, Okaka said he had had a strategic plan for the match and was happy it worked in his favour.

Robert Okaka (in red) and Tunisian Youssef Rafrafi (in blue). [Ben Ahenda Standard]

He will face Russia's Bizhamov Dzahambulat in the quarter-finals today.

"First and foremost, I must thank Almighty God for guiding me towards this victory after tough training sessions. I came here to win and my effective punches completely worked and weakened my opponent in the first two rounds before the third one," Okaka told Standard Sports from Dubai.

"And on the third round, I had just to land an upper cut on him (Tunisian) that completely disoriented him for the referee to stop the match," he added.

On the next match, Okaka said he was equally ready for it and would tackle it the same way as the penultimate one.

"The next match will not be any different from this one. What's matters is my focus towards them and how hard I work for them (the next matches)," said the Kenya Defence Forces boxer. And by just landing in the last eight, Okaka is assured of $10,000 (Sh1,291,500) where each gold medallist will receive $300,000 (Sh38,745,000) - with 50 per cent allocated directly to the boxer (Sh19,372,500), 25 per cent to their trainer (Sh9,686,250) and 25 per cent to the national delegation (Sh9,686,250). Silver medalists earn $150,000 (Sh19,372,500), bronze $75,000 per fighter (Sh9,686,500), and even fifth-place finishers secure $10,000 (Sh1,291,500).

Enroute to the pre-quarter-final match, Okaka beat Anton Vinogradov of Estonia on points.

Assistant coach David Munuhe was a happy man.

He said the technical bench was over the moon following Okaka's pre-quarter-final victory.