Grieving Mrwebi will do it for gran

RITA Mrwebi says the pain of losing her grandmother last week is not going to stop her from fighting against Shayvonne Pattison this Saturday.

Instead of asking Ntsika Sigcawu, the promoter of her South African welterweight female title defence against Pattison in Butterworth due to her grandmother’s death, Mrwebi has decided that the show must go.

And the 25-year-old Johannesburgbased fighter is confident that she will put one over Pattison yet again.

“Yes, I’m still mourning my late grandmother, but that does not mean that I have a problem with fighting on Saturday. She would have encouraged me to fight as she used to do when she was still alive,” she said.

“She was everything to me as I lost my mother a few years ago. My granny encouraged me to have faith when I had a shoulder injury which I thought was going to end my boxing career. I’m going to dedicate this fight to her memory.”

This is the third time that Mrwebi and Pattison trade blows between now and November 2010. And Mrwebi says given a choice she would have preferred to fight against another opponent instead of facing Pattison.

Mrwebi has already scored two victories over Pattison and she says she is going to do it again.

Trained by George Khosi in Johannesburg, Mrwebi, who fought more than 100 fights during her amateur days, won the SA title after outpointing Pattison last August. “Fighting against the same opponent is not taking me anywhere. It would really be nice to me to get into the ring with someone as I have already beaten Shayvonne twice,” said Mrwebi.

“I guess I’ve got no choice, but to fight against the same boxer though there are other boxers in the division. I agreed to fight against Shayvonne because I don’t want to be stripped of my title. I’m interested to know as to what she will come up with this time around.”

Pattison is the number one contender while Kholosa Ndobayini from the North West and Limpopo’s Mashudu Ramakwelo are also rated in the welterweight female division.