Three-fight rule floors Mokoena’s title bid

Boxing politics paid an unwelcome visit to the Johannesburg media conference to announce the Feast in the East tournament on March 10.

There should have been two SA titles on the bill in KwaThema‚ Springs‚ but instead there will be just the one‚ national middleweight champion defending against Fernando “Pitbull” Rodrigues.

Michael Mokoena’s lightweight showdown against Thompson Mokwana was sanctioned by Boxing SA only as a non-title 10-rounder.

Mokoena‚ it seems‚ fell foul of the so-called three-fight rule which requires a boxer to have had three bouts in the division before challenging for a SA title.

Fair enough‚ one might think‚ except observers pointed out that Boxing SA sanctioned 10 SA title bouts in 2018 five of them in the Eastern Cape without regard for the three-fight rule.

Making the call even harder is that Mokoena has had no fewer than two fights at lightweight‚ including a spectacular knockout of Lusanda Komanisi in his last outing.

“We’ll still challenge for the SA title‚” said Mokoena’s trainer‚ Anton Gilmore. “It just won’t be in this fight‚ it’ll be the next one.”

If losing one SA title bout from his bill was not stressful enough for Supreme Boxing Promotions boss Sandile Xaka‚ his heart would have skipped a beat when spotting the plaster over the right eye of cruiserweight Chris Thompson‚ down to face Limbani Lano of Malawi in one of the three undercard bouts on the bill.

Thompson suffered the cut in a bout on Sunday‚ but fortunately it was not long or deep enough to require stitches‚ being glued instead.