Not even once did  it dawn on the mind of Peter “Destroyer” Malinga that his name will be mentioned in the list of South Africa’s top boxing trainers after quitting the sport as a boxer in 2006.

He began his new role on a small scale, assisting his father Jabulani Malinga, who played a key role in shaping up his boxing career. Jabulani assisted Norman Hlabane, who honed the skills of many boxers including Peter and his two younger brothers Thamsanqa and Vus’ Umuzi.

Hlabane and Jabulani guided Peter to winning the SA, WBU and IBO welterweight titles.

Today marks 21 years since he won the IBO title – his second world title – when he outpointed Spencer McCracken over 12 rounds in England on October 22 1999.

"I believed that with time myself  and my brothers (Thamsanqa and Vusi) will produce champions when we started training fighters but not in such a short space of time," he said yesterday.

Thamsanqa and Vusi are also former champions. Their champion Ayanda "Greyhound" Nkosi has already won the Gauteng, SA, WBA Pan African and WBF lightweight titles.

“If it was not for the coronavirus; we would have produced another one. So watch the space." he warned.

His first world title was the WBU belt which he won against Alessandro Duran in Italy in 1997.

.