Durandt is ‘fed up’ with local promoters
FED up with the broken promises of local promoters, Nick Durandt plans to start a new promotional outfit next year.
The flamboyant trainer and manager was speaking ahead of Moruti Mthalane’s cancelled IBF (International Boxing Federation) flyweight title defence against European champion Silvio Olteanu in Germany.
Mthalane, who does not have a promoter at the moment, is earning his lowest purse in years, being forced to take the fight for about R75,000, roughly 10% of what he should be earning.
Durandt will not take the promoter’s licence out in his own name — local boxing regulations prevent a manager from promoting — but he made it clear he would play an active role in the new company. “There will be a promoter’s licence taken out next year,” Durandt said last week. “There is no licence required for me to be a boxing adviser … we intend to come in with a bang.”
Mthalane, the only active South African boxer to hold a genuine world crown, has been the biggest casualty of SABC’s blackout of boxing, which began after the 2010 World Cup.
He has not been seen locally on live TV since making the first defence of his belt in September 2010. Durandt said he had organised for SuperSport to broadcast Mthalane’s fight against Spanish flyweight Olteanu.
Durandt said he was tired of listening to rubbish, saying the job of promoters was to “put bums on seats, not wait for television”.
While he was making a clear reference to Mthalane’s last promoter, Branco Milenkovic, Durandt explained later that he was unimpressed with most of the country’s promoters, big and small. Asked about the new promotional company, he replied: “Everything’s in place.”
The right to stage the IBF flyweight title bout was won by a German promoter with a bid of R110,000, which is split 75%-25% between the champion and the challenger.