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mthalane in pound seat

SECUNDA, SOUTH AFRICA: 24 September 2004. South African Flyweight & vacant WBC International title fight between SA champion Ngubela Gwazela (white trunks) and Moruti Mthalane (white trunks with strips) at Graceland Hotel Casino and Country Club in Secunda, South Africa Pictured here is Moruti Mthalane Photo by Lee Warren Gallo Images
SECUNDA, SOUTH AFRICA: 24 September 2004. South African Flyweight & vacant WBC International title fight between SA champion Ngubela Gwazela (white trunks) and Moruti Mthalane (white trunks with strips) at Graceland Hotel Casino and Country Club in Secunda, South Africa Pictured here is Moruti Mthalane Photo by Lee Warren Gallo Images

Bongani Magasela

Bongani Magasela

Moruti Mthalane will become the first local boxer to earn R650000 as a challenger in a world championship when he takes on IBF flyweight champion Nonito Donaire on November 1.

The normal purse money for a challenger in a world title fight is around R150 000.

Retired heavyweight fighter Gerrie Coetzee was not paid what Mthalane will earn when he dethroned American Michael Dokes of the WBA belt on September 23 1983.

Even Dingaan Thobela earned nowhere near Mthalane's purse money when he won the WBC's most lucrative super middleweight title from Glen Catley in 2000.

American promoter Bob Arum won the bid to stage the Mthalane-Donaire fight yesterday in New Jersey in New York.

He bid R2,5 million compared to Branco Milenkovic's R2,2 million.

Milenkovic's willingness to do the fight himself actually forced Arum to go even higher, thus benefitting the two fighters.

Arum will present the fight in Las Vegas on the undercard of the IBF welterweight championship between champion Joshua Clotey and Antonio Magarito.

Mthalane, from KwaZulu-Natal, earned the right to challenge Donaire from the Philippines on July 5 after outclassing Hussein Hussein in the IBF title eliminator that was staged by Milenkovic's Branco Sports Productions at East London's Jan Smuts Stadium.

Milenkovic said: "I am proud to have proved that I can compete with the biggest boxing promoter in the world."

Meanwhile, Boxing SA chairman Peter Ngatane has urged Mthalane's stablemates, Jeffrey Mathebula and Malcolm Klassen to win their IBF eliminators tomorrow against Julio Zarate and Manuel Medina.

"It's your duty to uplift our spirits. We are at a sour point," he said referring to South Africa's dizzy showing at the Olympics in Beijing.

Amateur fighter Jackson Chauke, who was eliminated in the early stages in Beijing, will make his professional debut on October 7 at Emperors Palace.

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