Fuzile’s brave doping challenge
DV pugilist calls on officials to do their thing at fight series
SOME boxers run for dear life at the sight of doping officials in their bouts. Not Azinga Fuzile who instead is pleading with organisers to make sure that they will be present at the vaunted Featherweight Super Four (S4) series.
Fuzile will be among the four boxers who will battle it out for national featherweight supremacy for the whopping R300 000 first prize at Emperors Palace on October 21.
The other three boxers will be former three-time world champion Simpiwe Vetyeka, internationally acclaimed Limpopo-born Tshifhiwa Munyai and rising star Lerato Dlamini.
The series will be organised by Golden Gloves Promotions with the draw already been conducted.
The draw has pitted Fuzile against Munyai in the first round with each boxer being paid R175 000 while Vetyeka and Dlamini will fill up the second berth. There are differing opinions about Fuzile’s participation in the series with some of his fans totally against it while others feel he is ready to prove his mettle against the best in the land.
GGP boss Rodney Berman has already promised the winner at least a mandatory spot in the WBC. The promoter will attend the WBC Convention which starts on August 31 to September 9 in Kazakhstan.
While the anticipation of the S4 is gathering momentum, Fuzile has stoked the fires by pleading with Berman to make sure doping agents are present to test the participants.
“All we want is an even playing ground so that we do not question the winner after all is said and done,” said the boxer’s trainer Mzamo Njekanye.
“We are not suggesting that our fellow participants are drug cheats but we just want this series to be won by pure boxing ability and nothing else.”
Fuzile’s plea is contrary to the habit of his fellow boxers who see doping officials as devils.
With SA Institute for Drug Free Sport (Saids) escalating its test in boxing tournaments a number of boxers are expected to fall prey. Already former SA champion Aphiwe Mboyiya has been caught after he failed a doping test and is now due to attend a hearing on September 6 in East London.
If found guilty he will likely be handed a stiff penalty which might end his boxing career.
Fuzile wants to make sure that doping is eliminated in boxing.
This despite the fact the 20-year-old reigning SA featherweight champion comes from Duncan Village, a township notorious for drowning its boxers in unsavoury activities.
With just eight fights without a loss, Fuzile is one of the favourites to win the S4 especially if he can go past the internationally experienced Munyai.
“We are not worried at all by any of the boxers in the series. All we want is even keel,” said Njekanye.
However Fuzile is yet to resume training after injuring his left hand in his successful title defence against Rofhiwa Maemu at Orient Theatre few weeks ago.
Njekanye said doctors advised the boxer to lay off training for six weeks to let the hand heal. “Fortunately it was nothing serious involving a bone or something. The boy is letting the hand to heal and that is giving him more time to focus on his studies.”
Fuzile is in matric at Kusile Comprehensive School in Duncan Village.