Competitive action helps young boxers polish their skills – Botha

Sometimes a loss benefits a fighter in their development, says Francois Botha.

The “White Buffalo”, as this accomplished former IBF and WBF heavyweight world boxing champion is nicknamed, was reacting to the outcome of some fights at Cecil Emmett Hall in Vryheid, northern KwaZulu-Natal, on Sunday.

But Botha seemed more focused on the two title fights – the KZN featherweight and SA junior bantamweight championships – which featured fighters with less than 10 fights.

Mpendulo Gumede from Durban was crowned as the province’s featherweight champ after winning the topsy-turvy 10 rounder on points against Nhlonipho Hlubi from Ladysmith, while Thema Zuma retained her South African featherweight belt via a deserved unanimous points decision over 10 rounds against Bathabile Ziqubu.

Botha and former two-times WBC super-middleweight champ Thulani “Sugar Boy” Malinga were among the guests of promoter Zandile Malinga, whose Starline Boxing Promotions staged the tournament jointly with the provincial government.

Botha said: “I believe that most of the fighters in the bill are young fighters with less than 10 fights, so there is no need, really, for them to worry much about the outcome; what matters most is the opportunity to polish their skills by way of getting into competitive action,” said the man who still wears his black and white goatee, which makes him recognisable.

The Durban-based retired fighter who is originally from Witbank added: “You may easily find that some of the fighters on this card had not fought for quite some time yet they were always in gyms trying to perfect their skills. At some point you must be in the actual fight to gauge your progress before you are in a situation of challenging for a title."

It was a fun-filled afternoon with young and old people getting involved emotionally in the tournament. Some even became overnight experts as they barked instructions to some of the fighters – specifically those from KZN – against their visiting opponents.

But they were caught between  a rock and a hard place in the Gumede-Hlubi and the Zuma-Ziqubu contests because all four are locals. 

Meanwhile, the reign of Ilunga Makabu as the WBC cruiser weight champ ended on Sunday when he was stopped in the 12th round by Badou Jack in Saudi Arabia. The US-based Swedish first dropped the Congolese in round four before finishing him off 54 seconds into the final round.