Phillip "Time Bomb" Ndou has advised SA welterweight champion Tsiko "Cruel Junior" Mulovhedzi to put up or shut up.

Ndou was reacting to the champion's claim that he does not want to be the one to bring Ndou's storied career to an end.

Ndou last saw action in September 2013 when he outpointed Namibian Pohamba Mandume in Windhoek. That was his fifth victory, against one defeat, since he came out of retirement in 2009.

Ndou challenged Mulovhedzi, who defended his title for the third time last month, to prove his point in the ring.

The champion said last week: "I will knock Phillip clean out and that will not make me happy because he is my homeboy in Venda. We come from the same area."

Ndou, once a feared puncher with crippling power, fired back yesterday.

"Tsiko is talking rubbish. If he truly believes that he will knock me out, why not accept the challenge? He must just shut up if he does not want to defend against me. There is no champion that will not want to have an easy defence. This is a response from someone who is not sober."

The 37-year-old claimed to have taught Mulovhedzi boxing.

"Now he thinks he has arrived. Funny, his father [whom Tsiko said was the reigning champion of the annual bare-knuckle fist fight in Venda] begged me not to challenge his son because he knows what I will do to Tsiko," he said.