Abulaziz Kurnet’s razor thin margin loss to Asanda Gingqi for the then vacant SA featherweight boxing title in September was just a speed bump.

The loss reminded the previously undefeated boxing hot prospect from Brooklyn in Cape Town that he is not invincible. However, it has given him even more vigour to want to become a South African champion.

“Yes, I thought I won the fight and this was confirmed by the judge who scored it my way,” he said this week. “But we are back fighting hard to get back to the contention for the title.”

Ginqqi from Mdantsane won that closely-contested fight by a point. Kurnet intends to use his upcoming fight in ESPN Africa’s second tournament in Fourways on February 24 to prove himself.

Kurnet is currently rated No 3. Victory in his upcoming fight will put him in line for a chance to challenge Gingqi.

“My mother passed away last month and just the thought of her makes me emotional,” he said. “But I want to make her proud by continuing with the plan we both had that I must be a South African boxing champion. The journey begins on February 24. So, ja, definitely the goal has never changed, it is still the same.”

Before facing Gingqi, Kurnet had been undefeated in 10 fights. Their fight, staged by the Gauteng Boxing Promoters Association, was full of drama inside and outside the ring.

Inside the ring, Gingqi lost two points which were deducted by referee Sazi Xamlashe for infringements (Gingqi’s corner men delay in getting out of the ring for round three to begin) and also for holding.

Then outside the roped square two judges scored the closely contested bloody fight 114-112 for Gingqi and 115-112 for Kurnet. Their colleague’s verdict of a draw was not acceptable as per regulation which explain that if scores are even at the end of a vacant title fight, judges must vote for the winner. The judge who sat on the fence eventually took a decision and scored it 114-113 in favour of Gingqi.

That is how Kurnet’s goal was shattered. He set it in 2004 when walked out of Drakenstein correctional centre, formerly known as Victor Verster prison where he spent three years of his 12-year term for murder.