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Blue Jaguar is no more

BOXING icon and multiple South African champion Anthony "Blue Jaguar" Morodi has died, chair of the Veteran Boxers Association Peter Ngatane confirmed

"I received a phone call late [Monday] afternoon about the sad news that Tony died today," said Ngatane, who was Morodi's stable-mate at the famous Dube Boyz Club in Soweto where their skills were honed by former qualified teacher, professional boxer and Sunday Times sports journalist, Theo "Brown Panther" Mthembu.

Ngatane, a South African representative of the World Boxing Council and a medical practitioner, said Morodi had leukaemia.

"He had been ill for a very long time. I'm told that he died at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital where he had been admitted for over a month."

Morodi, 70, lived with his wife and family in Mofolo Village near Mshenguville, Soweto.

He was born in Lydenburg, Mpumalanga, on February 6 1942.

He moved to Soweto with his parents in the mid-1950s and joined Mthembu's establishment eight years later.

Morodi had a successful amateur career before fighting his first professional fight on December 5 1964.

He won his first championship - the Transvaal (non-white) featherweight title - on October 29 1966.

He then went on to win the South African (non white) bantamweight title, the Transvaal lightweight title, the SA junior lightweight title and the national lightweight title.

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