Julius Indongo is one of the most popular and richest Boxer who was born on February 12, 1983 in Windhoek, Khomas Region, Namibia. In October the undefeated IBF as well as IBO heavyweight champ Eduard Troyanovsky (25-0, 22 KOs) announced that he would be making an official defense on the Lebedev-Gassiev card held in Russia on December 3. On November 7, Indongo, who was ranked WBO #3, WBA #15 and IBF #10 and was announced as his opponent for the bout scheduled for Moscow for his first fight out of Namibia. In spite of being the favorite by the odds, Indongo knocked out Troyanovsky in just forty seconds in the opening round, using an uppercut, making him the fourth world champion in boxing from Namibia. Troyanovsky was severely injured from the blow and could not recover. The referee immediately stopped the fight, leaving Troyanovsky still lying on the floor. After some help they finally brought Troyanovsky up on his feet, and then took off from the ring.
In late December, there were talks for a potential unification fight between Indongo and WBA champion Ricky Burns. On 9 January, Burns’ manager Tommy Morrison confirmed a deal was being put together for Burns to fight Indongo in a unification fight in April at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow. On 11 January, Sky Sports confirmed a deal was reached for Burns and Indongo in a unification title bout on 15 April 2017. The WBA, IBF and IBO titles would be at stake. This was Scotland’s first ever unification fight. Burns failed to become Scotland’s first unified world champion when he lost a via a one-sided unanimous decision with wide scores of 120-108, 118-110 and 116-112. In the last two rounds, Burns hit the canvas three times, but these were ruled as a slip. Following the defeat, Burns praised Indongo, “He was so so awkward. He was a lot better than we thought he was going to be. He can hit as well.” He also said that he wouldn’t retire.
The WBC super lightweight title became vacant after Terence Crawford decided to move up to welterweight. It was announced that number 1 ranked Amir Imam would fight number 3 ranked Jose Ramirez for the vacant title. WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman then announced that Viktor Postol, who was ranked number 4, would fight number 2 ranked Regis Prograis (20-0, 17 KOs) for the interim WBC title. The winner of both fights would then meet to become the full titleholder. In January 2018, a deal was finally reached for the fight between Postol and Prograis to take place on 9 March at the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Florida. On 12 February, ESPN reported that Postol suffered a fractured thumb and forced to drop out of the bout. Indongo was announced as his replacement, with the bout still taking place on 9 March, however the venue was changed to Deadwood Mountain Grand, a casino and resort in Deadwood, South Dakota, with Showtime televising the bout live. Prograis knocked Indongo down four times in the fight, dropping him once in round 1 and three more times in round 2 before referee Ian John Lewis stopped the fight at 2:54 of round 2. Indongo started the fight well before being hit with a hard jab that dropped him. Indongo was hurt with this shot. Indongo fought close to Prograis, which seemed to benefit Prograis. After the fight, Prograis told Showtime’s Steve Farhood, “After the first round, I felt his punches. He couldn’t punch. He couldn’t hurt me. I got a little reckless. But, I got the job done, so I can’t complain.” Prograis landed 46 of 94 punches thrown (49%) and Indongo connected on 32 of his 120 thrown (27%).
After increasing his winning streak to 14 wins in a row, he was awarded his WBO Africa light-welterweight title in October 2012 after beating James Onyango. Indongo was able to record six successful defenses for that title between 2014 and 2016. Indongo was an inexperienced fighter in the world arena His first world title fight happening at the age of 33. The trainer of his, Nestor Tobias, stated that he was often required for him to get more aggressive to “deliver the killer punch”.
Indongo made his professional debut at 25 years old on the 25th of July, 2009 through a points-decision (PTS) victory against Pohamba Mandume. After having won his first six fights Indongo was awarded the first title in his region which was his Namibian lightweight title, after beating Samuel Kapapu, and retained the title by defeating Peter Malakia.
On 1 July 2017, Top Rank announced that a light welterweight unification fight between Indongo and WBC, WBO, Ring magazine, and lineal champion Terence Crawford was agreed to take place on 19 August at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska live on ESPN in US and Sky Sports in the UK. The projected unification of every major world title in boxing (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, The Ring, and lineal) will determine the light welterweight division’s first undisputed champion since Kostya Tszyu in 2004, and the first time all the aforementioned titles have been at stake in a single fight since Bernard Hopkins vs. Jermain Taylor in 2005. Both fighters paid over US$100,000 in sanctioning fees. Indongo vacated the IBO belt to avoid paying even more in sanctioning fees. Crawford entered the fight as a heavy favourite to win.
