The fifth-round stoppage win by newly crowned SA junior-flyweight champion Mpumelelo Tshabalala does not reflect the quality fighter Xolisa Magusha still is, says Tshabalala’s manager Vus’Umuzi Malinga.

“He is slightly old but he is still very tough,” said the former SA bantamweight champion whose JD Malinga stable in Katlehong produced its second national champion since founder and trainer Jabulani passed away years ago.

In fact, Vus’Umuzi is Jabulani’s last born son. The other brothers are Peter and Patrick, who also made headlines during their days as professional boxers. Jabulani’s sons work together in honing the skills of young fighters.

Their first champion was former Gauteng and WBA Pan African lightweight champion Ayanda Nkosi who later became the national champion and added the WBF strap to his collection. But he has joined the HotBox Gym of trainer Colin Nathan.

Tshabalala is a novice of seven fights. He caught Magusha with a body blow and Magusha turned his back, forcing the automatic stoppage.

“It was not an easy fight for us,” said Malinga. “Both threw bombs from round one and you could see that Magusha wanted to end it quickly. He is still very tough and don’t be fooled by his age. I mean, in his last five years he was never knocked down. This shows that Mpumulelo is one to watch in the future. We beat [Siphamandla] Baleni clean for this title last year but we were robbed.”

Malinga appealed against the decision with BSA. The fight was reviewed and all three judges scored it in favour of Tshabalala. Baleni vacated the title and went down to the mini-flyweight division to challenge Ayanda Ndulani – a fight Baleni lost to the IBO champion.

BSA then matched Tshabalala and Magusha, and their fight took place at East London’s ICC Hall where Xaba Academy staged its three-title tournament last Sunday. Tshabalala warned even before their fight that he would go back to Ekurhuleni with the national belt and he did so with splendour.