Bongani Magasela

Bongani Magasela

Defused "Time Bomb" Philip Ndou, who reigned supreme due to his crippling power that turned him into a knockout artist, is back in boxing with a bang.

This former SA and WBA Intercontinental featherweight, WBC International and WBU junior lightweight champion, who flattened 30 of his 31 victims from 34 fights, retired in 2004.

Born in Thohoyandou on May 4 in 1977, Ndou's premature retirement at the tender age of 27 resulted after a brain scan revealed an abnormality that would endanger his health.

Ndou, the most flamboyant boxer ever to be trained by the esteemed Nick Durandt, collapsed after a loss to Isaac "Angel" Hlatswayo on May 22 in 2005.

The tall and lanky fighter who is built like American former Olympian and WBA welterweight champion Mark Breland, has teamed up with Michele Castellan in an attempt to turn the "so- called no hopers into champions".

Ndou works as a boxing analyst for Blow by Blow.

Castellan's Boxercise Gym where retired former SA featherweight king Andrew "Pretty Boy" Matabol, works as a personal trainer, is situated in Norwood.

Ndou will be a technical advisor to Castellan, a former professional boxer who was nicknamed "The Italian Stallion".

"We will discuss strategies. I will be in the corner, I won't go inside the ring. That is Mickey's job," he said.

Ndou revealed that Khaphathe Mphambanyeni, a Baby Champs 2007 winner who lost recently in his bid to win the South African middleweight title to Peter Mashamaite, is one of their boxers.

Ndou hinted that his own boxing programme is on the cards.

"I want to expose our boxers to the public so that they must be known," he said. "Our champions are not known because our boxing programme, Blow by Blow, is too short."

"A movie about my life as a boxer is also in the pipeline," he said in his parting shot.