Jacob "Baby Jake" Matlala may be dead, but his memory lives on.

Sintle Ness reminded observers of the departed pocket-sized boxer with his skills at Southgate Mall on Saturday. The seven-year-old amateur boxer wowed the public when he did pad work with his adopted father, renowned amateur boxing trainer Nicky Ness.

Little Sintle, who has already had well over 15 fights, later had a round of shadow boxing and it was during that session that he had thousands of fans eating out of the palm of his hand.

He bobbed and weaved like a seasoned campaigner while Ness senior stood and watched.

Those gathered were heard saying Ness reminded them of Matlala, who defied all odds as the smallest boxer in the world to become a multiple world champion.

The boxer and his father were at Southgate to support the skipping rope competition which is part of promoter Jeff Ellis's attempt to revitalise boxing among the public.

The event was attended by a number of top fighters including Johnny "The Hurricane" Muller and Russian Roman Balaev. Muller takes on Kevin "KO Kid" Lerena in a non-title shoot-out while Balaev and Ali "Rush Hour" Funeka will fight for the vacant IBO welterweight belt at Emperors Palace on Saturday night.

Nathan's professional fighter, Dee Jay Kriel, was crowned the champion for performing tricks with the skipping rope and won R5000. Onke Duku and Mandla Sibuso - stablemates at the Orlando Boxing Club - came second and third, and had to settle for R2500 and R1000, respectively.