RITA Mrwebi said the pain of losing her grandmother last week was not going to stop her from fighting Shayvonne Pattison on Saturday.

Instead of asking Ntsika Sigcawu, the promoter of her South African welterweight female title defence against Pattison in Butterworth, Mrwebi has decided the show must go. And the 25-year-old Johannesburg-based fighter is confident that she will put one over Pattison yet again.

"Yes, I'm still mourning my late grandmother, but that does not mean that I have a problem with fighting on Saturday. She would have encouraged me to fight as she used to do when she was still alive," she said.

"She was everything to me as I lost my mother a few years ago. My granny encouraged me to have faith when I had a shoulder injury which I thought was going to end my boxing career. I'm going to dedicate this fight to her memory."

This will be the third time Mrwebi and Pattison will trade blows since November 2010. And Mrwebi said given a choice, she would have preferred to fight another opponent.

Mrwebi has already scored two victories over Pattison and is confident of a third. Trained by George Khosi in Johannesburg, Mrwebi, who fought more than 100 fights during her amateur days, won the SA title after outpointing Pattison last August.

"Fighting against the same opponent is not taking me anywhere. It would really be nice for me to get into the ring with someone else as I have already beaten Shayvonne twice," said Mrwebi. "I guess I've got no choice, but to fight against the same boxer though there are other boxers in the division."