Muller and Liebenberg fired up for IBO title showdown
JOHNNY “Hurricane” Muller and Ryno “The Lion” Liebenberg will collide for the vacant IBO All Africa light heavyweight title at Emperors Palace on September 22, Golden Gloves spokesman Brian Mitchell confirmed yesterday.
Mitchell said the bout between these two rising stars would be part of the bill that features two semifinals of the cruiserweight Super 8 Last Man Standing series.
“This is good news for Muller, who fell out of the Super 8 because his opponent Ran Nakash from Israel did not make the weight on June 16,” said Mitchell. Muller proceeded to the semifinals via a walkover and was to meet Thabiso “The Rock” Mchunu, who stopped Flo “Black Panther” Simba in one round.
But a successful protest by Simba’s management to Boxing South Africa ended that fight. Mitchell, who is Simba’s manager, and the boxer’s trainer Harold Volbrecht blamed referee Tony Nyangiwe for stopping that fight prematurely. Boxing SA did not reverse
the decision but called for a rematch and that is how Muller made space for Simba while Danie Venter will fight Zack “Black Warrior ” Mwekassa.
Sipho “Tsunami ” Taliwe will defend his WBC International lightweight belt against Mzonke “Rose of Khayelitsha ” Fana while Hekkie “Hexecutioner ” Budler will put his IBO mini flyweight title on the line against Florante Condes.
Muller and Liebenberg had good runs on Monday night. Muller blew away Khayeni Hlungwana in three rounds while Liebenberg, whose skills are honed by Colin Nathan, outpointed Zim
babwean Tineyi Maridzo over eight rounds. Mitchell said IBO super middleweight champion Thomas “Tommy Gun” Oosthuizen and Volbrecht left for the US on Tuesday. Oosthuizen will make the fifth defence of his title against Rowland Bryant on August 2.