IBF elevates Malinga to championship fight
ONLY a day after announcing the International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior featherweight championship fight between holder Kiko Martinez and Jeffrey Mathebula, promoter Branco Milenkovic said yesterday that Vus’umuzi Malinga would challenge IBF bantamweight holder Jamie McDonnell.
‘‘The financial terms have already been agreed and Malinga’s clash against the Briton (McDonnell) will take place in the UK. We will confirm the date later in the week,” said Milenkovic yesterday.
‘‘We are very happy. This is like a blessing to Vusi, considering the recent death of his trainer and father, Jabulani Malinga. My responsibility is now bigger than before.”
Malinga was originally supposed to fight Joseph Agbeko for the No 1 ranking, but was elevated to the championship match after the IBF called for a purse bid, which was won by the South African.
Milenkovic revealed that he could not reach an agreement with Don King — Agbeko’s promoter — and the IBF decided to step in.
This situation worked in favour of Malinga, who was then allowed to proceed directly to the champi- onship fight without having to fight in the mandatory eliminator.
The left-handed boxer from Ekurhuleni has been with Milenkovic’s Branco Sports Productions since he turned professional 13 years ago. Malinga has fought 26 times under that outfit, which also got him involved in two world championships, which Malinga lost.
In those two world championship fights he was stopped in the first round by WBC holder Hozumi Hasegawa in Japan on February 12 2009 and was outpointed by IBF champion Santa Cruz in Los Angeles on June 2 last year.
Malinga has also fought three world mandatory eliminators and won all of them.
His most worthy results were when he caused an upset by stopping former WBC champion Veeraphol Sahaprom in four rounds in Thailand on June 12 2008.
Many also took notice when he outpointed both Michael Domingo and Gabutan on October 30 2010 and March 23, respectively.
Malinga and MacDonnell both have 21 wins and a draw each. The South African — who is slightly the bigger puncher with 12 knockouts — has four losses compared with McDonnell’s two.