Fana's unification bout squashed
BRITISH promoter Frank Warren dashed all hopes of a world title unification fight between Mzonke "The Rose of Khayelitsha" Fana and Ricky "Rickster" Burns from Scotland.
Fana was going to put his IBF junior lightweight title on the line while the WBO titlist would put up his belt in a ground-breaking unification fight that had South African and global fight fans salivating.
This was set to follow hot on the heels of the successful hosting of two IBF championships as well as two IBO and two international title fights in South Africa recently.
Fana's promoter Branco Milenkovic intended staging the first unification world title involving a South African world champion here on June 11.
Milenkovic revealed that he was so keen to do the fight here that he even doubled the purse offered to Burns compared to what he termed the "embarrassing" offer from Burns' promoter Warren.
A livid Milenkovic said yesterday: "Frank Warren has been going on about the unification for the past three weeks on every available international website. I got sick and tired of reading about it so I informed his Sports Network that if they are serious about this fight, they should contact me instead of running to the media.
"Two weeks ago Frank made me an embarrassing offer for Fana to fight Burns in Scotland but I countered this by doubling his offer to bring Burns to South Africa," he explained.
"Frank never replied. The fight was not only going to be for the IBF and WBO but also for the prestigious Ring Magazine belt.
"Fana is rated No 1, a spot above Burns.
"Seeing what was coming through from Frank, I then made a deal with Lou Di Bella who promotes Argenis Mandez, the No 1 mandatory challenger, to fight Fana here on June 11."
Fana will bid for the first defence of the title he won on September 1 after defeating Cassius Baloyi on points.
Mendez, 24, earned the right to challenge Fana after outpointing Baloyi at Carnival City on January 21.
The 37-year-old Fana boasts 30 wins with 12 KOs, against four defeats, while Mendez has lost only once in 19 fights and has nine short-route victories.