Jantuah gets world title shot

International Boxing Federation (IBF) light middleweight champion Ugandan Kassim 'The Dream' Ouma will makes his first defence of his title against Kofi Jantuah.
The fight is scheduled for January 29, 2005 at Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, NJ, USA.
Jantuah boasts of 30 fights, including 28 wins (18 knockouts) and a loss. Ironically, the 30-year-old challanger is ranked 12 in the IBF rankings.
Jantuah's latest exploits saw him pick up a first round victory in a scheduled 12-round contest over Mexican Marco Antonio Rubio in a World Boxing Organisation (WBO) light middleweight title eliminator September 18 this year.
Ouma outworked American Verno Phillips to take the IBF title with a unanimous 12-round decision on October 2. The Florida-based champion, who had beaten Phillips three years ago, improved to 20-1-1 (13kos).
Ouma, arguably Uganda's highest-prized professional boxing export of the moment, said after winning the title that he would have wanted to have his first title defence at home if it were not for the 'deserter' label levelled on him by the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF), who say he left the army without authorisation in the late 1990s.