It's very rare that a major boxing fight lives up to its billing as the main contest. It's even rarer that brute force overcomes superior skill.

That's exactly what happened between Klaas "Iron Man" Mboyane and Tapiwa "Little Finnix" Tembo who fought in front of a few hundred fans at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg on Friday night.

The tournament welcomed the return of live boxing to both SABC TV and radio after a five-year blackout.

The Gauteng sports department and the board of Boxing SA - acting on the instructions of Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula - jointly sponsored the box-and-dine as a celebratory tournament.

The six-bout card also featured Zimbabwean, Nigerian, Congolese and Ugandan boxers, with the international 10-rounder in the bantamweight division between SA's Mboyane and Tembo from Zimbabwe topping the bill.

Mboyane, a raging bull of a man, aggressively forced his way forward and it appeared that he would end the fight early.

But Tembo skilfully extricated himself from any potential danger by fighting from side to side like a matador.

In the final analysis, Mboyane threw volumes of punches while Tembo landed fewer but cleaner blows, which were obviously not enough to convince the judges.

Wally Snowball's and Neville Hotz's scorecards read 97-94 and 97-93, while Tony Nyangiwe scored the fight 96-94 - all in Mboyane's favour.

Nathaline Bannie from Uganda and Tembisa's Raider Muleba fought only for a minute in each round as they spent the other minutes posing. At times, referee Pumeza Zinakile had to remind them to box.

Their lacklustre bout was correctly declared a draw.

The bout for the vacant Gauteng middleweight belt, between Walter Dlamini and Tebogo Malose, revived fight fans despite also ending in a draw.

Other results: Hansie Carr (SA) beat Daddy Mpinga (DRC), KO first round; Jason Bedeman (SA) beat Raymond Kupula (DRC), TKO 6th round.