Lamati yet to be compensated after injury

If the boxer is compliant, we must pay him – Lejaka

Ludumo Lamati punches Nick Ball during the Featherweight fight at The SSE Arena Belfast on May 27, 2023 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Ludumo Lamati punches Nick Ball during the Featherweight fight at The SSE Arena Belfast on May 27, 2023 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Image: Charles McQuillan

Ludumo “9mm” Lamati has not received a cent from Boxing SA's benevolent fund, more than a year since the former IBO featherweight suffered an injury from an official boxing match in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Boxing SA deducts 1,5% from boxers' purse monies from a fight towards the fund with the understanding that it would be used towards rehabilitation for a boxer who sustains injuries during an official match and also contributes towards burial costs, should a boxer pass on after a match.

“I did not get anything from BSA and the WBC,” said Lamati, who spent almost two months in hospital in Belfast where he was operated on the head to stem bleeding from his brains after he collapsed in round 12 of his WBC silver match he lost to Nick Ball in Northern Ireland on May 27 2023.

“The only person who tried to help me at BSA was Dr (Robert) Selepe (who is BSA medical committee chairperson).

Lamati – whose condition prevented him from continuing with his career – said his communication with WBC representative here, Dr Peter Ngatane, did not bear any fruits.

Ngatane said: “They [Lamati and his manager Larry Weinstein] know that they are supposed to contact the WBC which would have contacted its insurance. They keep coming to me and I have nothing to do with their fight in Belfast.

“The British Boxing Board of Control was in charge of the fight, so they must contact it or the promoter who staged the fight, and they threatened to take the legal route.”

Selepe said: “I escalated the matter to Tsholofelo Lejaka, the acting BSA CEO, after speaking to the concerned boxer who said he has a debt to settle which are medical bills in Belfast.” 

It was said the WBC paid some of his medical bills, but there's still an outstanding debt.

Lejaka said: “There is money in the fund, I can confirm that; Lamati's claim has not been brought to the office of the acting CEO. If Lamati is compliant, we must pay him, simple.”

Lejaka established the BSA medical committee few days after the passing of Boitshepo Mandawe after being stabbed in the streets of Soweto in 2015.

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