Woefully out of shape Namibian boxer Vikapita Meroro will not get the purse money he signed for with Golden Gloves to face Kevin "KO Kid" Lerena at Emperors Palace last weekend, peeved promoter Rodney Berman said yesterday.
The Namibian, who suffered his second short-route loss to Lerena on Saturday, is understood to have forfeited about R150 000.
Both camps had agreed that they fight over the cruiserweight division but with only 2kg over.
That was because Meroro had weight issues long before he even flew into the country.
It was obvious from the first round of Saturday's fight that Meroro had a premeditated script.
The flabby boxer first held on to Lerena while offering nothing in return for most of the gloomy bout. He then quit without being in danger in the fifth round.
Said Berman: "We lodged the fight purse with BSA pending an investigation into the Namibian's performance. He quit, plain and simple. He was in no imminent danger. We have an obligation to the public to produce good fights. Emperors Palace and SuperSport pays good money. I can't overlook that."
News emerging from Namibia is that Meroro has quit the sport after his sixth loss against 28 wins.
His promoter Nestor Tobias is quoted saying: "We are obviously very disappointed with Meroro's behaviour but we, however, thank him for having served the sport of boxing. We would like to sincerely apologise to all boxing fans because we know this is not the standard they expected from our boxers who have proven to be world class."
The former WBO Africa Meroro cruiserweight champion - who had fought top names including Isaac Chilemba - had last fought in 2015, when he was knocked out in the sixth round by Dmitry Kudryashov in Russia.
He was supposed to be back in action in July last year against Thabiso "The Rock" Mchunu but that fight did not materialise.