Berman packs a punch
SA boxers will get a decent chance in Germany this time
● Say what you like about SA boxing, but if foreign fighters come here they’re likely to get a fair shake from the local ring officials. Not so the other way around, especially in Germany.
So naturally there are raised eyebrows over the two SA boxers who will be in action in Germany on Saturday night — International Boxing Organisation welterweight champion Tulani Mbenge and veteran lightheavyweight Ryno Liebenberg.
Mbenge, unbeaten in 15 fights, puts his belt on the line in Hamburg against Sebastian Formella, undefeated in 20 outings.
Promoter Rodney Berman needs Mbenge to win. He’s already talking about taking his 67kg attraction to the US after this fight to be showcased on TV there.
But wary of fighting abroad, Berman has convinced the sanctioning body to provide neutral officials.
The referee is Polish and the judges are French, American and Italian; with no German in sight it might actually not degenerate into a joke.
Ask Liebenberg, who has been stiffed there twice before. “Me and Germany don’t have a good past,” Liebenberg said this week.
The 25-fight veteran is boxing some 500km south-west of Hamburg in Wiesbaden against novice Nick Hannig, unbeaten in seven fights.
Tommy Oosthuizen, a former opponent of Liebenberg’s, was beaten by a seven-fight Russian in March, which suggests Liebenberg’s seven-fight opponent is already earmarked for the victory.
“I’ve always been supposed to lose,” Liebenberg said.
“I’ve never been the person that was supposed to achieve what I did.”
He wasn’t supposed to win the SA lightheavyweight title in his fifth fight in 2011, but he knocked out champion Tshepang Mohale.
He wasn’t supposed to beat Joey Vegas of Uganda nor Russian Denis Grachev, but Liebenberg defied the odds in front of home crowds.
Winning abroad has been a problem for him, most notably in Germany.
He fought Enrico Koelling in 2016 and lost by split decision despite dominating the fight. “I beat Koelling hands down. The entire place said I beat him, I think even his coach thought I beat him.”
They had a rematch in SA which Koelling won — a decision Liebenberg happily admits was fair. “He beat me [then].”
Liebenberg returned to Germany last year to take on Vincent Feigenbutz and lost by a technical knockout.
Liebenberg laughs. “I was buckling him all over the ring, then we bump heads in the fifth round.”
Liebenberg suffered a small cut he insists wasn’t hampering him. “And in the next round he stops the fight.”
But the real crime was, instead of going to the scorecards, which should have had Liebenberg ahead, the referee declared it a stoppage win for the local guy.
Liebenberg admits he was sceptical when he received the offer to fight Hannig.
But then he studied his opponent and he decided this was a fight he could win.
“When I started boxing I made a tick list. Things to achieve, so you go win a fight, win a fight by knockout, win a title or a belt, win a national title, win an international title, win a world title.
“We all have the hopes and dreams to win a world title. One of the boxes I haven’t ticked is winning a fight overseas.”
But if he loses on Saturday — by robbery or fairly — Liebenberg plans to pack it in.
“There’s no point in giving everything and winning, but still losing. I’m 35 years old, I’ve got three kids. I’ve had my turn.”
I’ve never been the person that was supposed to achieve what I did
Ryno Liebenberg Veteran light-heavyweight boxer