Tulani Mbenge notched up another stoppage victory in Johannesburg on Thursday night, and then challenged Chris van Heerden to what would be a clash of SA’s two leading welterweights. 

“Let’s get it on,” the SA champion roared from the ring at his would-be opponent who sat in the crowd, smiling and gesticulating with his hand in such a way to suggest Mbenge was hot air. 

Mbenge needed just three rounds to dispense of Idda Pialari of Tanzania, who was heavily over-matched and out-gunned despite his record of 30 wins, seven losses and a draw. 

The 30-year-old Mbenge, who improved to 19-1, appeared confident he wouldn’t be troubled too much more by “The Heat” Van Heerden, who has been campaigning in the US for the better part of 10 years. Van Heerden, 35, was knocked out in the second round in his last bout in April. 

It will be interesting to see if broadcaster ESPN Africa, which resumed its fare of boxing at the beginning of the year, can organise a fight of this magnitude. 

Van Heerden may be past his best, but he was the country’s best welterweight when he left and Mbenge has assumed the mantle in his absence.

In the co-main feature at the Galleria in Sandton, Johannesburg-based Congolese Emmany Kalombo forced opponent Rayton Okwiri of Kenya to quit at the start of the eighth round. 

Unbeaten Okwiri arrived here with the claim to fame of a win over Andrey Zamkovoy at the Rio Olympics in 2016, three years before the Russian won the world amateur title. 

He proved durable and awkward early on, but after seven rounds of punishment at the end of Kalombo’s fists, he’d had enough and remained sitting on his stool. 

Kalombo improved to 16-1 and Okwiri dropped to 7-1-1. 

Earlier, Jabulani Makhense stopped veteran Paul Kamanga in the fifth round to push his record to 13 wins and one loss.

Kamanga, losing on SA soil for the first time, dropped to 23-3.  

He had no answer to the taller Makhense’s accurate punches and work rate, with his only strategy being to tie up his opponent on the inside. But that tactic wasn’t going to last for eight rounds. 

Gift Bholo won an entertaining scrap against powerful Tanzanian Hannock Phiri, whose heart made up for his lack of skills. 

Both men hit the deck, but Phiri’s inability to slip punches counted against him in the end.