Long way to go before SA boxing gets it right

NO representation at the Rio Olympics, a veteran former world champion forced to consider retirement after collapsing in the ring, a crowd darling loses his world titles. This year can safely be termed as an episode in the country’s sorry boxing story best forgotten.

Sure there were some fascinating tournaments such as Golden Gloves’ Super Four which saw the rise of Kevin Lerena, as well as the epic clash between Simphiwe Konco and Nkosinathi Joyi in honour of the legendary trainer Mzi Mnguni.

But overall 2016 was a pretty bad year for the sport. Of course Boxing South Africa (BSA) will be quick to point to the appointment of Tsholofelo Lejaka as their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as a step in the right direction to ensure the game returns to its former glory days and lives up to their stated vision of wanting “to be the leading sporting code in South Africa”.

But when you still have boxers leaving the country for international fights without clearances and nearly dying out there, you know there is a long way to go before that vision is realised.

Just last month, the once revered and feared Mzonke Fana, collapsed in the ring in Ghana in his IBO Lightweight title clash with Emmanuel Tagoe. The man they call “The Rose of Khayelitsha” survived the scare and had to have a scan thereafter.

At 43 he probably shouldn’t still be in the ring, but the fact that he went into the fight without getting cleared by BSA tells the story of a sport in serious need of fixing.

Lejaka has said they will look into the case, but can you imagine the scandal had Fana actually died? Surely stringent measures are going to be needed if the sport is to be returned to its heyday and Lejaka has a tough task on his hands making sure he lives up to the pronouncement of Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula that he is the right man to turn boxing around for the better.

Of course he cannot be blamed for this, but the fact that South African was not represented at the Rio Olympics for the first time since the country’s return to the Games is reason enough to give boxing the thumbs down for 2016.

After all we had two boxers in London four years ago, one at Beijing 2008, a trio at the preceding edition of the Games held in Athens as well as at Sydney 2000. There were five at Atlanta in 1996 and two in Barcelona back in 1992 when we returned after apartheid-induced sanctions.

And with a number of the participants from all those Games having gone on to become world-class professionals, there can be no denying the importance of ensuring that the country does send boxers to the Games.

Talking of world-class, there is a general feeling that Lerena is headed for such status. Having never fought in the amateur ranks, the former rugby player had a fantastic year in which he won the innovative Super Four tournament that was staged over two legs.

Hekkie Budler, on the other hand, had a year he would quickly want to forget after being defeated by Byron Rojas in their title fight for both the IBO minimum weight and WBA Super World minimum weight belts.

For a while the golden boy of local boxing, Budler suffered a shock unanimous points defeat to the Nicaraguan.

What will linger in most fistic fans’ memories from 2016, though, will no doubt be Golden Gloves tribute night to the great Mnguni at the famed Orient Theatre in East London. Konco and Jayi thrilled with a no-holds-barred encounter that saw the former win on points. As they say, things can only get better and BSA will hope for an improvement in the sport they govern.

The year will start with a bang in February as Golden Gloves stage what promises to be a thrilling tournament in which all of Budler, Lerena and Ryno Liebenberg (who gets the chance to avenge his controversial defeat by German Enrico Koellingf) will be involved in what could be career-defining fights.