Ngxeke wins SA crown in stunning upset

Mdantsane-based boxer Sandile Ngxeke staged a smash-and-grab affair when he upset fancied Athenkosi Dumezweni via a 10-round stoppage to win the SA junior bantamweight title in North West at the weekend.

Initially not in the picture to contest for the vacant title due to his low rating, Ngxeke appealed to Boxing SA to give him an opportunity and convinced top-rated Lindile Tshemese to step aside.

While he came to the fight as a dark horse, participating in his eighth bout, Ngxeke, from Sada, had claimed the big scalp of then reigning champion Sabelo Ngebiyane.

The win vaulted him into third spot but there were questions over the top rating of Tshemese, who had been inactive, while Dumezweni, the former title holder, was rated second.

With Dumezweni’s concentration divided, as he was also serving as a technical assistant to rapper Cassper Nyovest, who fought Naakmusiq in the main bout at Sun City, Ngxeke took advantage of this, his trainer Ncedo Cecane said.

“We knew he would be aggressive and powerful in the first few rounds and go for a knockout so we planned to counter him and take him to deep waters,” Cecane said.

Indeed, Ngxeke dropped Dumezweni in the third and kept drilling him with right hands.

Dumezweni, a Mthatha-born Johannesburgbased southpaw, gradually weakened.

“From round eight we told Ngxeke to go forward as we could see Dumezweni had nothing left.”

When the lankly challenger obliged, Dumezweni found himself eating big right hands, which dropped him and forced a stoppage in the 10th round to hand Ngxeke the belt.

Ngxeke’s promoter, Linda Saliwa, of Xaba Boxing Academy, said they had no doubt he was equal to the task when they appealed to BSA: “In fact we wanted to stage the fight ourselves but then decided to let boxing be the winner and allowed TLB to organise it.”

Ngxeke will now be required to defend against Tshemese.