It’s all-out war, says trainer

● Trainer Sean Smith wants Thabiso Mchunu to demonstrate to Tommy Oosthuizen the true power of the cruiserweight division on Saturday night.

“Last time it was a boxing match, this is going to be war,” he said of the rematch that will take place on the Repeat or Revenge tournament at Emperors Palace.

Oosthuizen returned from a hiatus of more than 15 months, which included a jail stint on a drugs charge, to take a majority decision in their first contest in September.

Not everyone agreed with the decision, especially not Mchunu.

“I won the fight, definitely, that’s why there’s a rematch. If he won the fight there wouldn’t be a rematch [and] this time there’s going to be different judges.”

Mchunu is confident there’ll be a different result this time. “This camp is better than the last camp so obviously there’s going to be a lot of changes for this fight.

“This time I’m just going to make it easier. Not just for them [the judges], but for me and my team because we’ve been working very hard so I’ve got to convert what we’ve been doing in training into the fight.”

Last time Mchunu was tipped as the favourite, having the weight advantage over a blown-up light-heavyweight who had struggled with out-of-the ring distractions as well as substance abuse.

But Oosthuizen showed he still possessed skills, boxing from behind the jab and moving away from Mchunu’s potentially dangerous power punches.

He’s had a few more months to improve on his fitness and brush up ring strategy.

The smart money will be on Oosthuizen this time; boxers generally win return fights.

Not that Mchunu is a slugger. He’s awkward and is able to make his opponents miss, but he does have a tendency to rely on single punches rather than combinations.

Despite his trainer’s war talk, he insists, he can outskill Oosthuizen without resorting to raw power. “If there is a need to do that, I will do that [but] I can even win without bulldozing him.”

For savagery on the night, fans are more likely to get their bloodlust fix in the two fights featuring former MMA fighters Wade Groth, the SA middleweight titleholder, and Boyd Allen, who take on Walter Dlamini and Wynand Mulder respectively.