The once-great sport of boxing is not what it used to be except for a small pool of loyal fans who still follow the sport and the occasional high-profile bouts such as the upcoming Tshifhiwa Munyai-Aphiwe Mboyiya contest.

Once the domain of heroes and stars, boxing is now almost a fringe sport. But it needn’t be. That is the view shared by businessman Jacob Mnisi – a greenhorn in the promotion of fights in SA – who intends to revive it in his province of Mpumalanga.

Mnisi’s J4Joy Boxing Promotion introduced itself to the fight fraternity with a three-title championship event at Sandton Convention Centre in March last year. An SA lightweight, WBA junior-featherweight and Gauteng bantamweight title contests were featured in that bill. Sadly, participants in those championship fights were not from Mpumalanga due to the dearth of talent in that province.

Mnisi’s company will be in action again on April 8 and this time back home in Middleburg. Munyai, who retained the national junior-featherweight belt with a 10th-round stoppage of Khaya Busakwe, will headline the tournament. He will vie for a record fifth defence, which would earn him the ownership of BSA’s championship belt.

Munyai is from Limpopo while Mboyiya comes from Duncan Village near East London.

WBF Intercontinental junior-featherweight holder Thato Bonokoane takes on Innocent Matengu in the main supporting bout.

Granted there is not much left in terms of fighters in Mpumalanga but Mnisi would be committing an unforgivable sin should he leave that province’s evergreen Koos “The Last Great Warrior” Sibiya from Siyabuswa out of the tournament.

Sibiya, trained in Westbury, Joburg by Bernie Pailman, has stood the test of time. At 40, he’s still going strong and this is thanks to clean living. Sibiya and Pailman won the WBF Africa and ABU junior-lightweight belts.