Planned EL tourneys are still on track

Boxing SA has refuted reports that two big tournaments in East London this weekend have not been approved.

This follows a post by the regulatory body on its social media page, where it revealed that the only two tournaments approved this weekend were the Golden Gloves Promotion (GGP) show at Emperors Palace in Gauteng on Saturday and a nursery tournament in Butterworth.

The omission of the Xaba Promotion show at Orient Theatre on Friday and Rumble Africa tournament at the same venue on Sunday left boxing fans confused.

This is after BSA’s unsympathetic wielding of the axe by cancelling tournaments if funds have not been made available several days in advance.

This happened in October when the MMT show in Port Alfred, topped by the SA mini-flyweight title rematch between Xolisa Magusha and Siphamandla Baleni was called off at the last moment, although organisers claimed the funds had been submitted.

BSA chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka assured local boxing fans that the two big shows in East London this weekend would progress as planned.

“I think there was a miscommunication among ourselves as BSA for not also including the two tournaments as being approved,” he said.

“I will attend to this as a matter of urgency, but in the meanwhile I can assure that the two shows have not been cancelled.”

Interestingly Sunday’s show will feature the Magusha-Baleni bout, which has been shrouded in uncertainty after top contender Ayanda Ndulani lodged a protest for his sidelining in favour of Baleni, despite being the first in line.

Ndulani even threatened legal action, including a threat to interdict the fight.

But Lejaka said the Baleni-Magusha fight would continue as planned.

“As far as we know the fight between Magusha and Baleni will go ahead. We are aware of the protest from Ndulani camp, but the last time I checked we had addressed it. We are not aware of any threat to interdict the fight.”

Friday’s show will feature five title bouts, topped by the WBO Intercontinental junior-bantamweight title fight between Yanga Sigqibo of Duncan Village and Nicaragua’s Keyvin Lara.

Both tournaments will be televised live by SuperSport.