Nontshinga prepares to fight where only eagles dare
● Sivenathi Nontshinga ventures into the lions’ den in a bid to recapture the IBF juniorfly weight crown he lost in a shock defeat earlier this year.
The 24-year-old, knocked out by unheralded Mexican Adrian Curiel in Monte Carlo, will travel to the rarefied atmosphere of Mexico City to engage in the rematch on February 16.
Victory will reinstate him as South Africa’s only mainstream world champion, while defeat will see him having to climb his way back into contention.
His preparations had already begun at home in East London, said trainer-manager Colin Nathan, adding that the boxer was due up in Johannesburg in the next week or so. With Nathan back from his holiday on January 9, the duo will have only a month or so to work together.
While Johannesburg stands at around 1,750 metres above sea level, the Mexican capital is even higher at 2,250m, said Nathan, who is looking at trying to get into Mexico earlier than normal to acclimatise.
Failing that they could look at local options, like shifting camp to Dullstroom, Mpumalanga, for a couple of weeks.
Taking the rematch was a no-brainer, said Nathan. “I obviously wanted the rematch and it was the first question that I asked after we lost,” he said, pointing out there were a few options available to them.
One was seeing Curiel first taking a voluntary defence while they engaged in a keep-busy fight, which would have taken around a year to materialise, assuming the new champion kept winning.
“And then, of course, the other way would have been to engage in an eliminator and that would have kind of set us back about 12, 18 months… The elimination for the mandatory position is not happening yet.
“So I figured this would make the most business sense, challenging for the world championship and becoming champion again and not waiting. When you get an opportunity to activate a rematch, you can’t turn it down, especially for a legitimate world title.”
Nathan believes Nontshinga’s talents and ability to learn quickly will be key for the return fight, which would test his fighter. “We need to know how good he is,” he said.
“Was it a mistake where he turned in the position and got nailed with a terrible shot or does Curiel have his number? Or can he adjust to that mistake and win? Those are the questions that we need to ask.”
Nontshinga displayed a weakness in his make-up in his first defence against Regie Suganob in East London in July, by retreating with his hands down into the ropes and then slipping out sideways. Curiel took advantage and caught the 24-year-old with an overhand right as he was moving to his left on the ropes. “We need to negate that,” said Nathan.
The upcoming bout will see Nontshinga joining only a handful of South African boxers to have engaged in world championship rematches.
Vic Toweel was the first, losing the return to Jimmy Carruthers for the world bantamweight title in 1953. Light-heavyweight Pierre Fourie lost both his rematches, first against Bob Foster and then Victor Galindez in the 1970s.
Brian Mitchell enjoyed a successful return against Tony Lopez in 1991, having settled for a controversial draw in their first fight earlier in the year.
Welcome Ncita lost his IBF junior feather weight crown to Kennedy McKinney, and lost the rematch too, but stablemate Vuyani Bungu dethroned the American and won the return as well.
Dingaan Thobela won the return against Lopez to lift the WBA lightweight title in 1993, but then lost the belt and the return to Russian Orzubek Nazarov.
Takalani Ndlovu lost two challenges against Canadian Steve Molitor for the IBF junior-featherweight belt before lifting the belt in their third encounter.
Simphiwe Nonqayi scored a spectacular points win over Mexican Jorge Arce in Cancun in 2009, but was stopped in a rematch for a different belt in a different division two years later.