SA without an IBF champ for first time in years

Never mind what any gullible wordsmith waxing lyrical wants you to believe, the sad truth is that SA boxing is at the base of the barrel because the success of local boxing depends on the number of world champions the country has.

Sanction bodies play a role because promoters are close to them. Right now there is one WBO champ, Phumelela “The Truth” Cafu, a WBC bridgerweight holder Kevin “Two Guns” Lerena and two IBO titlists — Ricardo “Magic Man” Malajika and Mpumelelo “The Boss” Tshabalala.

Some boxing people unfairly refuse to recognise Lerena because, they say, he was given the WBC belt on a silver platter. Lerena held that organisation's interim title and was to challenge champ Lawrence Okolie.

Okolie was to defend against Lerena but the champion relinquished the title as he moved up to the heavyweights

The WBC championship committee installed Lerena as the new champion, making him the third local fighter in history to hold the sought-after WBC belt.

The same happened to Lennox Lewis who was crowned as WBC heavyweight champion when Riddick Bowe refused to defend against him, and instead Bowe threw the WBC title in the dustbin.

Lerena became the first African fighter to hold the WBC bridgerweight belt which was introduced in 2020 as the 18th weight class by WBC president Jose Sulaiman. 

That weight class is between the heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions. Lerena's enthronement is described as one of the benefits of a promoter being close to world bodies.

Lerena is the third South African to hold the most-sought-after green and gold WBC belt — the others being Thulani “Sugar Boy” Malinga and Dingaan “The Rose of Soweto” Thobela.

Lerena defends his belt against Ukrainian Serhiy Radchenko at Sunbet Arena, Times Square, Pretoria on May 1. The bout — headlining a star-studded line up dubbed “The Reckoning” by promoter Dewald Mostert — will be the first where a South African holding the WBC belt defends at home.

Cafu defeated Japanese Kosei Tanaka, a four-weight world champion in Japan, to become the only sixth local boxer in history to win the WBO bet — the others being Thobela, Jacob “Baby Jake” Matlala, Masibulele “Hawk” Makepula, Corrie “The Sniper” Sanders and Zolani “Last Born” Tete.

The argument is that both Malajika, who holds the flyweight and junior bantamweight belts, and Tshabalala are not really known internationally.

Therefore, the belief is that you can't put success and SA boxing in one sentence because you would be overlooking the deepest problems this country has in boxing.

Success should not be about the number of tournaments staged here but instead the number of quality tournaments that catapulted local boxers to the international level.

The last credible world championship tournament to be staged here was on July 2 2023 when Rumble Africa staged the IBF junior flyweight title fight between holder Sivenathi “The Special One” Nontshinga and Regie Suganob at East London's International Convention Centre where Nontshinga outperformed the Filipino over 12 rounds.

How many boxers have achieved world rating in the past three years compared to the number of tournaments SA has hosted?

Most tournaments that have been staged here don't advance boxers' careers. Some SA champions are not even known here because of how boxing is structured.

Development and the value of the SA title is haphazard. Blame that on Boxing SA, the regulator, which should drive those projects.

A number of South Africans have gone abroad and come back empty-handed. Smangele “Smash” Hadebe, Azinga “Golden Boy” Fuzile and Roarke “Razor” Knapp were involved in big fights outside home, and they lost.

For the first time in many years, SA does not have an IBF champ. Nontshinga was the last and his reign as the junior flyweight holder lasted for seven months.

Prior to Nontshinga winning that belt, Moruti “Baby Face” Mthalane had been the only IBF world champ in the country.

Mthalane lost to Sunny Edwards on April 30 2022. Mthalane was bidding for the fourth defence.

Hekkie “Hexecutioner” Budler also held that organisation's junior flyweight belt which he won on May 20 2018, the same night he was crowned the WBA Super and The Ring champion. He lost the belt on December 31 2018. Cafu, Nontshinga, Mthalane and Budler were stable mates at Colin Nathan's gym.

Based in Springfield, New Jersey, US, the IBF, which was formed in 1983, has received SA with open arms since 1998.

This collaboration paved the way for several SA boxers to compete for IBF titles. President Robert Bobby Lee Sr, a friend of Nelson Mandela's, began working with US-based Capetonian Cedrick Kushner and his partner Rodney Berman.

Their charge, Welcome “The Hawk” Ncita, became the first SA boxer, if not in Africa, to win an IBF title. Trained by Mzimasi Mnguni, Ncita won the junior featherweight belt in 1990 in Israel where he defeated Frenchman Fabrice Benichou on March 10.

The list of local boxers who became IBF champions includes Mbulelo Botile, Vuyani Bungu, Zolani Petelo, Phillip Holiday, Lehlohonolo Ledwaba, Malcolm Klassen, Mzonke Fana, Cassius Baloyi, Isaac Hlatshwayo, Takalani Ndlovu, Jeffrey Mathebula, Mthalane, Nkosinathi Joyi and Zolani Tete.

The hierarchy of the IBF also gave Noni “She Bee Stingin” Tenge the opportunity to challenge for its welterweight belt, and she dethroned defending champ, Daniella Smith, via a fifth-round stoppage in Brakpan in June 2011.

Tenge was trained by Lennox Mpulampula. Like Ncita, she became the first female boxer from SA and Africa to win a legitimate world boxing title.

IBF president Daryl J. Peoples has been to SA in a gesture to show how much he values the contribution made by local promoters whose success earned SA a place in the list of real global players in hosting and producing world champions.

Sadly it appears that the country is far from producing an IBF champ. That organisation is represented here by BSA ratings committee chairperson Andre de Vries.

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