Busy year for boxing
THERE was plenty of activity among the South African boxing fraternity in a vacillating 2011 - though much of it took place outside the ring.
A restructured Boxing SA, under new chairman, former sports minister Ngconde Balfour, was created with a mandate to put the administration of the bruised and battered entity into some sort of shape and order.
At the root of the problem, it was suggested - apart from the disorganised, chaotic structure of Boxing SA itself - were greedy promoters.
The promoters, at the same time, appeared to be fighting a guerilla war against each other in order to establish some sort of ascendancy, with Boxing SA doing little to rectify the situation.
This was amply demonstrated when tournaments organised by Rodney Berman's Golden Gloves and Branco Milenkovic's Branco Sports Promotions (BSC) were sanctioned on successive nights a matter of 20-odd kilometres from each other.
East London-based Nkosinathi Joyi was generally acclaimed the best pound-for-pound fighter in the country.
Boxing rankings, of course, are generally in a mess, with a dozen or so different associations all claiming the right to nominate world champions.
The outcome is that many of those wearing the mantle of world champions are nothing of the sort.
Under the circumstances, the neutral and largely objective Ring magazine is perhaps the most legitimate source in deciding the merits of fighters, so for IBF champion Joyi to be classified the best in the world in the strawweight division by the long-standing organisation is meritorious indeed.
There are a good many other pretenders who claim to be world champions, but apart from Joyi the only other South Africans to be ranked among the top 10 in their divisions in the world by Ring are IBF champion Moruti Mthalane, who is fourth in the flyweight division, IBF champion Takalani Ndlovu, fifth in the junior featherweight division, and IBO champion Tommy Oosthuizen, who is sixth in the super-middleweight division.
By virtue of handling the fights of Joyi, Mthalane and Ndlovu, BSC's Milenkovic acquired greater stature than any other SA promoter in 2011, nosing ahead of his great rival, Golden Gloves' Berman, with whom Oosthuizen plies his trade.
Ironically, it was a relatively unknown organisation in boxing circles, Showpony Promotions, that emerged out of the blue to stage what was probably the most entertaining and legitimate tournament in SA in 2011.
At a glitzy event at Montecasino, Johannesburg, last month, veteran SA boxing legend Fransie Botha, 43, was knocked out by Michael Grant in the 12th round for the WBF heavyweight title.
Ali Funeka (light-welterweight) and comeback kid Malcolm Klassen (super-featherweight) were among three South Africans who won high-class WBF bouts.
The flop of the year was undoubtedly the eclipse of likeable, budding heavyweight prospect Flo Simba.
Simba had his career disintegrated by knockout defeats against the seasoned Botha in the sixth round and journeyman Danie Venter in the first round.
Last month Golden Gloves initiated a Terry Petiffer Prospect of the Year Award in memory of the boxing aficionado who died last year. Boxing legend Jake Matlala also caused a scare when he was hospitalised with pneumonia.