TANZANIA'S Hassan Mwakinyo on Friday night beat Arnel Tinampay of the Philippines on points in an entertaining international non-title bout in Dar es Salaam amid allegation that the visitor was robbed of victory.

In a closely contested ten round fight at the well decorated Uhuru Stadium, Mwakinyo was declared winner with two judges 97-93, 98- 92, while the third judge tied the boxers on 96-96 points.

However, several boxing pundits have defended Mwakinyo's victory, saying the youthful promising fighter had nicked in some important points compared to his opponent.

Former boxer cum journalist Lawi Joel said Tinampay punches did not count for important points compared to his opponent. He said much of Tinampay punches ended on the hand guards of Mwakinyo.

"He (Tinampay) may have thrown many punches but they didn't connect most of those..., while Mwakinyo caught him with many clear punches to the head, which definitely scores more points," argued Joel.

Another boxing enthusiast, who identified his name as Joseph Laban said the judges were spot on and were there at zero distance to witness and score every punch.

"It is surprising to see that some people are trying to score the match from the comfort of your house. In boxing if you don't want to complain about points win by knockout.

So if the Asian is the tough guy as some claim, then why didn't he win by KO?" asked Laban. Tinampay camp believes that their boxer was robbed in Tanzania against Mwakinyo.

According to www.asianboxing.info the Friday's card had some teething problems. "Prior to the main event, between local hopeful Hassan Mwakinyo (16-2, 11) and Filipino tough guy Tinampay (26-25-1, 12) we saw both men having gloves cut off their hands and replaced.

This was supposedly due to the fighters getting the wrong sized gloves on. "Thankfully the issues surrounding the gloves didn't actually effect the action in the ring, though that was hardly smooth going it's self.

Both men had shots that shots slipped below the belt line, on a rather regular basis, the bell went notably early in several rounds," complained the camp.

Tinampay camp further complained: "For all the issues we had the fight was actually enjoyable, with both men having moments in the first half.

The power of Mwakinyo seemed to bother the teak tough Tinampay at times early on, but his accuracy prevented him from successfully following up.

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On the other hand the pressure and tenacity of Tinampay was incredible and he walked down the local for large swathes of the fight.

The pressure from Tinampay was effective, and whilst his shots weren't concussive he seem to score a knockdown, though it was ruled a slip by the referee, and was out landing and out working the local.

"As we got deeper and deeper into the bout the local fighter began to fight more and more negatively, getting on his bike and failing to land anything with much power.

Not only was Mwakinyo fighting scared but he was also shipping shots on a regular basis as Tinampay continually walked him down, loaded up on some bombs and seemed to rock him in round 9.

Although Tinampay did boss much of the fight he did take some big bombs in round 10, though walked through them like they were nothing, putting Mwakinyo back on the back foot without even needing to land anything in return.

It was clear he had broken Mwakinyo mentally, and the local had fallen well behind as we went to the final bell. One man celebrated, knowing he deserved the win.

The other looked resigned, exposed and like he had already accepted that he should be beaten. It was the local who looked dejected; he had been second best for much of the fight."