Camp split after fight goes awry

Nxoshe acts after losing title defence

THE disappointing loss by Thembelani Nxoshe in his supposedly SA title defence against Nhlanhla Ngamntwini has sparked him to revamp his technical team.

Nxoshe was lucky when his scheduled SA flyweight title defence against Ngamntwini was downgraded to a non-title fight owing to the latter not meeting the requirement for a challenger.

Ngamntwini was disqualified on the basis that he had not had three fights in the flyweight division, a regulation which is viewed as nonsensical.

For inexplicable reasons, Boxing SA insists on this regulation despite the worldwide acceptance of boxers jumping to other divisions to go straight to a world title challenge without ever fighting in it before.

For instance, Ukrainian Vasiliy Lomachenko jumped from junior-lightweight division to dethrone Jorge Linares for the WBA lightweight title without ever fighting in the lightweight division.

This regulation is only serving to stifle the development of boxing as well as preventing megabouts while also taking the gloss off fighting for the national title.

The example is now Nxoshe is considered a paper champion as he lost to Ngamntwini even though he remains a champion.

To ensure that his stock does not go any lower, Nxoshe had opted to reshuffle his team by parting ways with Simpiwe Gwengula and hiring Amanda Magatya as both the head trainer and manager.

He will rematch with Ngamntwini in MMT Promotions debut on June 3.

Magatya, who was one of the assistants when Nxoshe lost to Ngamntwini in the first fight, confirmed that he was now in charge of the boxer.

“Yes, Nxoshe asked me to be in charge because he said he was not happy with how he was being trained,” he said.

Magatya sat down with Gwengula to resolve the issue only to find out that the former also wanted nothing to do with the boxer.

“The feeling I got is that there are other issues between them but I did not want to get involved,” he said.

Instead Gwengula had been posting insinuations of the tiff on social media accusing other people of being behind the reshuffle.

“I saw his post but I decided to just carry on with what I have been hired to do,” Magatya continued.

Magatya is confident that Nxoshe would be better prepared for the rematch.

“He is very fit both mentally and physically. I am happy with his condition.”