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Must I have booed back at my foes?

Please allow me to say "Thank God" Mike Tyson is gone.

Please allow me to say "Thank God" Mike Tyson is gone.

I am asking for your permission because I don't want you to accuse me of blasphemy by mentioning the most hated name of Mike "Who" along side the name of God.

The world hates that man with a passion and no wonder he responds to the conditions with hatred, lack of enthusiasm to anything and a gigantic eagerness to destroy anything that moves.

His visit left me with scars of verbal abuse. A white female left what she did not know in her insults when she accused me of failing about 52 000 women who were raped last year, by bringing Mike Tyson here. "Me bringing Mike here?" I asked and she said "yes".

Anyway, Tyson was invited by both Golden Gloves and Emperors Palace. I am a journalist who broke the story that the former undisputed heavyweight champion was coming here to help raise funds for charity. Period.

Hope that's enough to justify my involvement and I want to share with you today my disapproval of people being booed.

It is destructive and it sucks. I don't like it but there are people who ask for it. One such person is boxing referee Ishmael Khoali from Witbank. His conduct at Graceland during a fight against his homeboy Anthony Tshehla and Kaizer Mabuza from Gauteng last Friday night was diabolical. Him and judges who scored that fight a draw deserved buckets of booing.

Khoali docked a point from Mabuza for clinching and also conducted a mandatory eight count when Mabuza actually slipped. But Khoali did nothing to Tshehla who faked low blows when in fact he was caught with body punches and deliberatly pulled down Mabuza.

Khoali turned a blind eye when Tshehla held on for dear life every time in trouble. How can I forget some fight fans at Emperors Palace who insulted and booed Corrie Sanders after being knocked out in round one by Osborne Machimana on Saturday night.

Booing almost destroyed retired footballer Philemon Masinga. Those who were against Tyson's visit would have also done the same to me and who knows how would I have responded? Booed back?

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