BSA must stop mismatches
Cape tourney reveals lack of oversight in sport
Boxing SA (BSA) has authority over world sanctioning bodies as long as their fights take place in South Africa, assured chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka yesterday.
This was in response to the question of whether the national sports governing body has any involvement in fights pitting fighters who are inactive against those who fight regularly. The mismatches pose a serious threat to boxers’ lives.
But BSA seems to have given away its control. International bodies are doing as they please and even do their own matchmaking, which often is not in the best interests of boxers and the sport in general.
A prime example is the tournament set to take place in Cape Town on June 23. The programme was circulated by a representative of Kalakoda Boxing Promotions.
Busy-bee recently crowned African Boxing Union (ABU) heavyweight champion Ruann Visser will defend against Thamsanqa Dube, a challenger from Zimbabwe who has not fought since 2011.
Vastly experienced Ilunga Makabu has been matched with unknown Florian M’Florian, who has just one win.
Zimbabwean Chamunorwa Gonorenda, who was knocked out in five rounds by Makabu in April, has been matched with Benjamin Hipkins. Gonorenda has won seven of his 19 fights, while Hipkins has one win from three fights.
But ABU president and BSA board member Peter Ngatane assured Sowetan the bout between Visser and Dube will not take place.
Lejaka blamed the Kalakoka representative for jumping the gun and marketing the bill when it was not sanctioned.