No real evidence for predicting the death of boxing

Boxing is dead! This phrase has become an apt description of the status quo of the sport in this country.

It depicts the defeated mentality of the masses who once loved and dedicated themselves to boxing.

The challenge to the well-being of boxing is that our minds and attitudes are solely focused on the negatives in boxing to such an extent that the negatives have taken centrestage while the core of the sport has taken a backseat.

Those negatives are well documented but for the sake of progress people have to come to a point where they actually shift their mentality and start focusing on the positive and try to move on.

It is depressing how the man on the street always complains that “amdaka” (boxing is dirty) and more often without any facts and understanding of why and how they come to that conclusion and you discover that there is a baseless, vicious cycle of negativity spiralling out of control.

The enlightened and optimistic few should strive to bring the naysayers and prophets of doom closer to the light and open their eyes to the positives in boxing.

For a start, the negative masses need to be kept abreast of the positives.

The masses need to be very observant of personalities and behaviour of people in general and they need to applaud people who operate from a standpoint of loyalty, discipline and dedication to their craft, such as Khangelani Jack, for example.

In Jack there are so many lessons to be learned, the most important being that there is life after boxing.

But one has to be guided and driven by passion in order to carve their own path.

Khangelani is living testimony of the positives that boxing desperately needs.

He has made a life for himself and has taken tremendous strides to prove that there is a life after boxing.

Jack, from Mdantsane, was a useful bantamweight who recorded notable wins in his six years as a professional fighter.

After hanging up his gloves in 2013 he turned his focus to amateur (Open Boxing) where he nurtured up-andcoming youngsters.

Jack’s knowledge and vast influence in amateur boxing saw him ascending to the position of national coach.

Currently Jack and his team are in Budapest, Hungary, where the Aiba World Championships are taking place. His is a very inspirational story considering how boxers become victims of alcohol and drug abuse after boxing.

The story of Leli Mbilase, a former South African junior-featherweight champion, who was beaten to death by an angry mob after a series of robbing sprees made headline news, further tainting the image of boxing and further (mis)proving the notion that there is no life after boxing.

When a former boxer like Jack stays on a straight and narrow and lives a clean life and dedicates his life to unearthing talented youngsters one cannot help but dismiss any whisper and any misguided hope and wish for boxing to die.

There is a serious culture of negativity in boxing that needs to be addressed. There is a culture that rejoices in spreading bad news about sport.

There is a culture that intentionally sets people up for failure. There is a culture that encourages idle minds.

There is a despicable culture that programmes boxers’ minds to believe that boxing has nothing to offer them once they hang up their gloves.

We need to adopt a mentality that celebrates little victories for boxing.