Sun May 26 06:40:28 SAST 2013
Sun May 26 06:40:28 SAST 2013

Boxing awards on hold

Jan 10, 2012 | Monwabisi Jimlongo | 4 comments

BOXERS, trainers, ring officials and promoters who excelled last year won't be honoured for their hard work, as has been the case for more than 30 years.

ANNOUNCING SHAKE-UP: Boxing South Africa board chairperson Ngconde Balfour.

 It's not like we have scrapped the awards altogether 

Ngconde Balfour, chairman of the Boxing South Africa (BSA) board, revealed yesterday that its annual awards ceremony has been scrapped - for now.

"Yes, we are not going to have the annual awards this year after we took a resolution when we came into office in September," confirmed Balfour.

"It's not like we have scrapped the awards altogether.

"We are now planning to have monthly awards, something we never had in the past. Monthly winners will then qualify for the annual awards."

The first awards function was held at Doug Dolan's gymnasium in Durban in 1976.

The awards were then taken over by King Korn, which started sponsoring them in 1979 and ended their involvement in 2002.

From then on a number of sponsors took over until the awards were without a sponsor in 2007 and the provincial governments chipped in.

The last few awards ceremonies were bankrolled by Free State, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal governments.

"We cannot depend on provinces to finance these awards, it should be Boxing South Africa who determine where an award function should be held," Balfour said.

"We will go out of our way and raise funds to cover future awards functions.

"This does not mean that we are going to shut our doors on provinces who want to take part, but they need to understand that they are not going to dictate to us as it was the case in the past."

Meanwhile, BSA director of operations Loyiso Mtya has revealed that Limpopo and Mpumalanga governments were willing to finance this year's awards ceremony.

Comments

Sun May 26 06:40:28 SAST 2013 ::
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Jan 10, 2012

Uncompromising

Ngconde Balfour........is that were you have been hiding ? Tjo, i thought i was seeing a ghost !
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Jan 11, 2012

Felemntwini

How do you scrap annual awards and propose monthly awards when we hardly have an SA title fight in a quarter or world title fight.

Khawukhokele Togu sibone...........
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Jan 11, 2012

ronj

The Boxing Awards have been going since 1976 when Happyboy Mgxaji was the first Boxer of the Year.

Some outstanding fighters like Vuyani Bungu, Brian Mitchell, Arthur Mayisela, Cassius Baloyi and Nkosinathi Joyi have also won this award.

Among the winners of Prospect of the Year we have been fighters like Charlie Weir, Dingaan Thobela, Phillip Holiday and Lehlohonolo Ledwaba who went on to international fame.

Possibly there are too many awards in recent years, so cutback on the number of awards to make them more meaningful.

Boxing SA must have rethink as we cannot be without awards after 36 years.
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Jan 11, 2012

ronj


The Boxing Awards have been going since 1976 when Happyboy Mgxaji was the first Boxer of the Year.

Some outstanding fighters like Vuyani Bungu, Brian Mitchell, Arthur Mayisela, Cassius Baloyi and Nkosinathi Joyi have also won this award.

Among the winners of Prospect of the Year we have seen fighters like Charlie Weir, Dingaan Thobela, Phillip Holiday and Lehlohonolo Ledwaba who went on to international fame.

Possibly there are too many awards in recent years, so cutback on the number of awards to make them more meaningful.

Monthly awards will not work because of too short a period.

Boxing SA must have a rethink as we cannot be without awards after 36 years.
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