Sinako club set on bagging titles

SINAKO boxing club in Duncan Village has arguably the most professional boxers in the region, after a whopping 11 amateurs moved to the professional ranks at a recent graduation event.

The 11 joined an already overflowing stable made up of the best talent in the township.

“Currently we have 24 professional boxers and we want to collect all the titles in the country,” says club owner and chief trainer Ben Mtyaliseko.

Already the club has two leading contenders in the flyweight division, with Yanga Sigqibo, who is rated third, jostling for a title shot with his stablemate Nhlanhla “24” Ngamntwini, who has returned after a stint in Johannesburg.

Ngamntwini, once a bright prospect, has seen his career nosedive due to a number of factors.

This forced him to leave the club to go and seek greener pastures at the HotBox gym of Colin Nathan in Johannesburg.

But he discovered that the grass was not so green there, prompting him to return home just as Sigqibo was making a name for himself.

The duo was in action in Johannesburg and Manguang in the past two weeks, with Sigqibo knocking out Zolile Miya while Ngamntwini took a points decision over Motsweki Moselesele to give his quest for a title shot a major lift.

The situation has left Mtyaliseko with a nice headache as he does not know which fighter will get the title shot first.

“I really cannot say at the moment; we will have to wait and see what happens with the champion.” The title is held by Thembelani Nxoshe, who has now joined Thando Zonke Promotions and is due to defend his crown soon.

Interestingly both Ngamntwini and Sigqibo are promoted by Xaba Promotions and Events, which helped Nxoshe to win the title.

Sinako boxing club is known as the breeding ground of talent in the township, and boasts a number of talented boxers, including the Siyo brothers –Siyabonga and Luzuko – who are back at the club after preparing for bouts under different trainers.

Siyabonga is trying to revive his career after two back-to-back losses to Simpiwe Konkco for the IBO world title and Hekkie Budler.

The boxer had former world champion Welcome Ncita in his corner in his last fight but according to Mtyaliseko he is back home now.

“There were plenty of issues with Siyab last two bouts that I do not want to go into right now before I offend other people, but I am happy that he has realised where his real home is,” he said.

Luzuko is also regaining his form after a knockout defeat by Japan’s Yohei Tobe, having rebounded to the win column with a stoppage over Sonwabo Twatwa.

Mtyaliseko predicts that by end of the year at least two national titles will be owned by his club.

“Everyone knows what we do, and there is no doubt that we will bring at least two titles by the end of the year.”