Boxing SA wobbles over national title regulations

Something is seriously wrong with how Boxing SA regulates SA title fights.

To mention just a few issues; the regulatory body insists that a boxer can only fight for a national title if he or she has had three fights in their division.

Admittedly, this is a grey area because it contradicts the Act which states that any boxer rated in the top 10 can fight for a national title.

BSA also does not approve a boxer to fight for the national title if he has come off a loss.

But all these regulations are challengeable, depending on who benefits from them.

Now here is a disturbing scenario: While several boxers have been disqualified from fighting for the national crown, they have been approved to fight for the Continental African Boxing Union (ABU) title.

This means a boxer who is deemed not good enough to fight for a national title can qualify to fight for a continental crown. Yep, you heard right!

And wait for this one. Peter Ngatane, the chairperson of Boxing SA, which disqualifies boxers from fighting for national titles, is actually responsible for ABU title fights.

The ABU is an affiliate of the WBC, of which Ngatane is one of the top members, so ABU title fights are approved by him.

As we speak, Ngatane is at the WBC Convention in Ukraine.

There is a sanctioning fee payable for bout.

While there are several referral cases, the most recent was the clash between SA mini-flyweight champion Xolisa Magusha and Ayanda Ndulani.

Ndulani was disqualified for fighting for Magusha’s title due to the same asinine BSA bureaucratic red tape.

Guess what? Ngatane allowed both boxers to fight for the ABU title.

Ngatane argues that there are different sets of rules for approving national title fights and ABU bouts.

BSA sanctioning committee head Khulile Radu admits that the regulatory body is getting it all wrong when it comes to approving organising an ABU title boxers for the SA title. “I have been preaching endlessly that we need to move on with the times and devise means which will make fighting for SA titles smooth,” he said, refusing to single out who is to blame for the discrepancy.

Added to that debacle are ratings committee decisions.

While ratings is a subjective matter, there are glaring cases where a boxer beaten in a national title is only dropped to a top five rating.

This means he only needs to beat one opponent and he automatically assumes the mandatory challenger status again.

After losing to Lindile Tshemese, Athi Dumezweni won only one bout to get another bite at the SA the junior-bantamweight title. Again after being dethroned by Magusha, Siphamandla Baleni needed only one win to vault back to title contention.

After losing to Silila, Luyanda Nkwankwa has only been dropped to third spot, meaning after one bout he will earn another title shot.

Radu admits that the compilation of the ratings is confusing.

“That is another area that needs urgent attention,” he says.

Defending himself, Ngatane said approval for SA titles had nothing to do with him, as he was not a part of the body’s sanctioning committee.

But while BSA is stalling, the very active ABU is making a killing with regards to sanctioning fees.