Tanzanian faces weighty issue
The continental boxing match in Mthatha between Tanzanian Selamani Bengaiza and Bangile Nyangani is hanging by a thread after the Tanzanian was unable to make the weight for the fight.
Bengaiza, who has fought as bantamweight, surprisingly accepted a fight for the WBA Pan African mini-flyweight title —a whopping four divisions lighter
against Nyangani in a move unheard of in boxing.
This has exacerbated calls for Tanzanian boxers to be banned from fighting in SA due to their generally poor performance.
Most Tanzanian boxers have performed dismally here, offering no resistance and handing local boxers easy wins.
Bengaiza easily succumbed to Makazole Tete in December 2016, in a bantamweight bout.
In June, he lost via a secondround knockout to Australian Andrew Moloney in a bantamweight bout.
But he stunned all and sundry when he accepted and was approved for a continental title challenge in a mini-flyweight bout.
His manager, Amos Martin Nkondlo, had defended the move, arguing that Bengaiza was already weighing 47kg, which is the limit for the miniflyweight division.
However at the premedical of the fight at Mdantsane Motion Fitness on Wednesday, Bengaiza rocked the scales 6kg overweight.
When Boxing Mecca arrived at the premedical, Bengaiza was said to still be struggling to reduce weight somewhere.
However it all proved futile as he was still way above the 10% weight window he is allowed at the premedical.
The Tanzanian will need to lose r at least 6kg for Friday’s weigh-in.
Boxing SA Eastern Cape manager Phakamile Jacobs was livid and issued a strong warning to the Tanzanian to try to come in at an acceptable weight for the final weigh-in on Friday.
“I told the promoter to monitor him, otherwise the fight might be called off,” Jacobs said. The fight will be part of the Blaque Magic Sports (BMS) tournament organised as a build-up to the Qunu Arts Festival in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Museum and King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality.
BSA boss Tsholofelo Lejaka had confirmed that the tournament was sanctioned though the merit of the BengaizaNyangani bout was subject to it fulfilling the requirements of the WBA.
However, it is still a mystery how the WBA could approve a bantamweight boxer coming off a knockout loss to contest a regional title four divisions lower. Jacobs referred all questions to WBA SA representative Stan Christodoulou, who could not be reached for comment. Boxing Mecca