The truth is that there is no SA successor to Corrie Sanders, the last of an impressive heavyweight lineage dating back to the 1970s, when Mike Schutte ruled the roost before the advent of Gerrie Coetzee, Kallie Knoetze, Jimmy Abbott and Pierre Coetzer.

But that's not the only division suffering a dearth of talent in this country.

Stars are few and far between.

Moruti Mthalane is the only local fighter to hold a bona fide world title, in the form of the IBF flyweight crown.

Nkosinathi Joyi was the pound-for-pound kind - until he lost his IBF strawweight belt by stoppage in Mexico in September.

Two months earlier Jeffrey Mathebula surrendered his IBF junior-featherweight belt in a unification bout to Nonito Donaire, a previous conqueror of Mthalane.

Perhaps Tommy Gun Oosthuizen will justify his ranking of fourth in the world by Ring magazine - if he gets to face the best super-middleweights.

SA boxers seldom fare well in big bouts - think Vuyani Bungu v Naseem Hamed, Phillip Ndou v Floyd Mayweather and Lehlohonolo Ledwaba v Manny Pacquiao.

Only a handful have risen to the massive occasion. We honour them here

- See the photo gallery for the Top 10 of SA boxing's biggest achievers...

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This article was first published in our sister newspaper, the Sunday World - Click here to see more of their stories

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