Mthalane 'best pugilist' SA ever had – Ramagole

Retired two-time International Boxing Federation (IBF) flyweight champion Moruti “Baby Face” Mthalane was the finest pugilist SA ever had.

This big statement was made yesterday by emerging administrator Lehlohonolo Ramagole, who is Boxing SA's provincial manager in Gauteng.

Ramagole was a promising professional boxer with abundance of talent before he prematurely ran into a wounded lion which mauled him to oblivion in 2009. 

Ramagole and yours truly reminisced about how Mthalane mauled Julio Cesar Miranda throughout 12 rounds to win the vacant IBF flyweight belt today — 15 years ago — at Johannesburg's Wembley Arena.

A baby-faced assassin whose cruelty inside the roped square instilled fear even to fans watching him in action had failed in his first attempt to win that belt from then champion Nonito “Filipino Flash” Donaire on November 1 2008.

That boxing match, staged by Bob Arum at Mandalay Bay, Nevada in the US, was stopped in the sixth round following medical advice from a ring side doctor who was concerned by the laceration inside Mthalane's eye.

Mthalane was back in action on April 18 the following year, and he pulverised Ramagole into submission in three rounds at North West University Sports Complex in Mahikeng.

That victory ended Ramagole's promising career, and it empowered Mthalane's promoter Branco Milenkovic to convince the hierarchy of the IBF to sanction Mthalane to oppose Miranda for what was at that time a vacant IBF title.

“I was the victim of a fruit harvested soon,” said Ramagole, who was rushed into such a big fight when he was still up-coming.

Yours truly warned Ramagole but he said experience did not measure the potential of a fighter. “I also believed in myself,” he said, adding that he was motivated by the fact that victory against Mthalane was going to take him straight into the sky.

“How wrong I was ... that man was the master of simply boxing basics. Nothing stylish but simple basics, stabbing relentless jabs and tight defence. He excelled in those departments. Him winning the IBF title did not shock me at all. It was a confirmation of my conviction about him.”

Trained by Nick “Mthakathi” Durandt, Mthalane successfully defended that title five times before being stripped of it on January 2014, after failing to come to terms with mandatory challenger Amnat Ruenroeg.

Mthalane from Lindelani in Durban retired in 2022 aged 40.