Injured boxer Rayton Okwiri beaten in South Africa

Kenyan Olympian Rayton Okwiri lost his quest for the IBF International Junior Middleweight title on Thursday night after being defeated by Democratic Republic of Congo's Emmany Kalombo in their supposedly 12-round bout in Johannesburg, Gauteng.

However, the fight lasted only past halfway as Kalombo won on a TKO at the beginning of the seventh round, with the Kenyan citing an injury in one of his right-hand fingers making him unable to continue the fight.

The former African Boxing Union super middleweight champion had vowed to make light work of the Congolese boxer which seemed to work in the first round but Kalombo got hold of him in subsequent rounds.

This was Okwiri's first professional loss [7-1-1] since turning pro in 2017

Okwiri was aiming to become the first Kenyan male boxer to hold a major world title after Fatuma Zarika became the first Kenyan to fly to the world top professional arena in 2016, when she beat Jamaica's Alicia Ashley to the WBC super-bantamweight title.

Before Thursday's fight, Kalombo’s last one was with Chikondi Makawa from Malawi, who went down three times in round three, forcing the automatic stoppage of that fight in Soweto on April 24 while Okwiri’s last action was in October last year when he stopped John Serunjogi from Uganda in the eighth round of their 10-round non-title bout in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.