Kennedy McKinney vs Vuyani Bungu

Vuyani Bungu caused one of the outstanding surprises of the 1994 boxing year when he took the IBF super-bantamweight championship from Kennedy McKinney by unanimous decision over twelve rounds at the Carousel Casino in Hammanskraal, South Africa, on 20 August. Both men weighed 122lb. McKinney entered unbeaten at 27-0-1 and was making the sixth defence of the championship he had won from Welcome Ncita in December 1992. Bungu, 23-2, was respected at home but had little international standing compared with the American champion. McKinney had beaten Ncita for a second time only four months earlier and was expected to retain his title. Bungu instead produced a disciplined twelve-round performance which was eventually recognised by The Ring as its Upset of the Year.

The opening rounds established that Bungu had not come merely to survive. He worked briskly, moved well and refused to allow McKinney to impose himself without resistance. The official cards show Bungu taking the first round unanimously, after which McKinney made a better impression in the second and third. John Stewart and Adalaide Byrd gave the second to McKinney, while Roberto Ramirez favoured Bungu; all three officials awarded McKinney the third. After three rounds, the champion appeared to have settled, but the balance of the contest was about to alter sharply.

Bungu took complete command of the scoring through the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds. Every judge awarded him all three sessions. Rather than trying to overpower the taller, more experienced champion, the South African relied on speed, activity, and the ability to complete his work before McKinney could respond effectively. McKinney was accustomed to controlling fights with his jab and measured punching, but Bungu gave him fewer stationary targets and maintained sufficient output to keep the champion reacting. There were no knockdowns and no single blow which decided the contest. Bungu began accumulating rounds at a rate which placed McKinney increasingly in need of a recovery. By the halfway stage the challenger had won four rounds on Stewart’s card and five on those of Ramirez and Byrd.

The seventh demonstrated the competitiveness of the fight. Stewart gave the round to McKinney, while Ramirez and Byrd preferred Bungu. The eighth was clearer, all three judges marking it for the challenger. McKinney was now behind and required a sustained response. He found one in the ninth and tenth. Ramirez and Byrd scored the ninth for the champion, although Stewart went with Bungu, and all three judges awarded McKinney the tenth. It was the champion’s strongest sequence since the third round and briefly reduced the margin. McKinney had shown throughout his title career that he could remain dangerous when a contest became difficult, but on this occasion he had surrendered too much ground during the middle rounds.

Bungu’s handling of the final six minutes removed any serious doubt about the outcome. Instead of retreating with the championship apparently within reach, he won both the eleventh and twelfth rounds on every official card. Those rounds were particularly important because McKinney’s success in the ninth and tenth had allowed him to make the decision close. Bungu did not permit it. He continued to work and finished strongly enough that the judges were in agreement not merely over the winner but over the decisive closing stages. McKinney reached the final bell without having been knocked down, but the champion had been outscored too consistently to retain his title.

John Stewart returned a score of 116-112, Roberto Ramirez Sr 117-111 and Adalaide Byrd 116-112, all for Bungu. Stewart and Byrd each found eight rounds for the challenger, while Ramirez awarded him nine. The pattern was unusually clear from the individual cards: Bungu swept rounds four through six and then swept the last two, providing the central and concluding portions of his victory. The verdict ended McKinney’s unbeaten record and his reign after five successful defences had preceded this sixth attempted defence. For Bungu, it transformed a career that had until then been centred largely in South Africa. He had previously lost decisions to Fransie Badenhorst and Freddie Norwood, but arrived for the title challenge having rebuilt himself with a succession of victories, including a stoppage of Jorge Lopez in Texas four months earlier.

The significance of the result became clearer with time. Bungu did not prove to be a champion who had benefited from one exceptional afternoon. He held the IBF title for nearly five years and made thirteen successful defences before relinquishing it to move to featherweight. McKinney rebuilt his own career, later giving Marco Antonio Barrera a demanding contest and subsequently winning the WBO super-bantamweight championship from Junior Jones. He also returned to South Africa for a second meeting with Bungu in April 1997, but again lost a decision. The first contest remains the more important of the two. On 20 August 1994, Bungu entered as an unfancied challenger against an unbeaten Olympic gold medallist and established world champion, won the middle of the fight, resisted McKinney’s late recovery and then took the final two rounds decisively enough to leave the judges with a straightforward verdict.

I think Bungu’s win only looks like a shock until you watch how he did it. McKinney was unbeaten, an Olympic gold medallist and an established IBF champion, but Bungu never let him settle.

He was quicker into the exchanges, busier and better at changing position. McKinney liked to control things with the jab and work at his own pace; Bungu broke that rhythm and swept the key middle rounds.

McKinney rallied in the ninth and tenth, but Bungu answered by taking the final two. That matters. He did not steal the title.

The scores were fair, and thirteen successful defences afterwards proved it was no fluke.