Osborne "Big Daddy" Machimana wants Boxing SA to hand him the South African heavyweight belt.

That is because Ruann "Giant King" Visser has been stripped of the belt after the champion was found guilty of doping by the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) in Switzerland.

The case relates to the presence of a prohibited substance following Visser's fight against Machimana in 2018.

Their bout, which Visser won by a seventh-round stoppage, took place at Emerald Casino in Vanderbijpark.

Visser must now serve a four-year ban ending in September 2023.

The sanction directed that all Visser's competitive results in his fights against Machimana, Madars Trivols (April 27 2019), Justice Siliga (June 23 2019), Bernard Adie (July 26 2019) and Misael Sanchez (October 25 2019) be disqualified. But Visser's results against Luke Sutherland (October 2018) and Elvis Moyo (February 2019) were not affected.

Visser, 29, fought his last fights under the guidance of trainer-cum-promoter Steve Kalakoka, who was assisted by Machimana. Visser and Machimana are close friends.

BSA issued a statement on Friday. "In line with the boxing regulation, 2004, regulation 17(7)(c), Mr Visser thus forfeits his national championship title and the title will be declared vacant with immediate effect," it read.

Machimana said: "I read the story and learnt that Ruann failed a doping test after defeating me. I think by right BSA must reinstate me as the champion. It will be a good thing to give me back my belt because then I will get action.

"Right now no-one here at home wants to fight me but those boxers that are ranked in the heavyweight division will be forced to face me."

The top-five rated boxers in the heavyweight division are Tian Fick, Joshua Pretorius, Siliga, Luke Sutherland and Johnny Muller.