After a long wait for action ex-champ is ready for Canoy
THE scarcity of fights which led to him getting stripped of his WBA international title has forced talented yet fight-starved Mzuvukile Magwaca to take any fight that comes his way.
Inactive for over a year, Magwaca was one of the East London-born boxers who saw their hard-earned titles being stripped from them when they could not defend them within the stipulated period.
The other one is his former promotional stablemate at Sijuta Promotions Simpiwe Vetyeka.
Magwaca is one of the boxers who suffered with the suspension of Sijuta Promotions due to non-payment of Boxing SA which had paid purses of the boxers who participated in their tournament in April last year.
With promised fights failing to come to fruition, Magwaca decided to take up an offer for the lightly regarded WBF title just to keep active.
He will face Filipino Jason Canoy for the crown at O R Tambo Hall, Khayelitsha in Cape Town this evening.
“Magwaca has been struggling to get action with several promised fights failed to come through, so we decided to take this fight,” the boxer’s manager Mla Tengimfene said.
This will be a step back for the Duncan Village-born Cape Townbased boxer, whose talent saw him scaling the heights of major world sanctioning bodies.
When he held the WBA International bantamweight crown he was rated in the top 10 of the sanctioning body and was being steered towards a world title shot.
Nicknamed “Old Bones”, Magwaca’s talent has been visible even when he was still an unknown commodity in the game.
Eyebrows were raised when he was included in the defunct Premier Boxing League (PBL) in the flyweight division.
Critics felt he was the weakest link in the lineup involving then reigning champion Lwandile Sityatha, talented and then unbeaten Makazole Tete and former SA junior-flyweight champion Mfundo Gwayana.
But Magwaca used the opportunity to market himself by first upsetting Sityatha before rallying to hold Tete to a draw.
By the time he faced Gwayana he was already the favourite, so it came as no surprise when he easily beat the former champion.
His path to the boxing summit was now smoother as he signed up with Sijuta and was then accelerated towards world ratings, culminating in him getting the eighth spot in the WBA list.
But all came crashing down with Sijuta’s suspension when Magwaca could not get a fight.
Several promoters promised to give him fights, but that yielded nothing.
This evening he will step into the ring for the first time since Novem- ber 28 2015, when he beat Raul Eliseo Medina.
Tengimfene admitted that the long inactivity has been adverse for the lanky boxer, but cushioned it by saying Magwaca was still young enough to make the best of his career.
“I know he is fighting for a minor title but a bout is a bout regardless,” he said.
“All Magwaca needs to do is to seize the opportunity and he will return to what he was.”
In Canoy, Magwaca will come up against a boxer who has lost six times and drawn twice in 31 bouts.
The 26-year-old Filipino has a bit of SA boxing connection as he beat compatriot Jetly Purisima in his last bout.
Purisima once fought in Mdantsane, losing a lopsided decision to Sinethemba Magibisela. — Boxing Mecca Correspondent