Boxing greats team up to revive fisticuffs sport
Boxing icons Dingaan Thobela and Brian Mitchel would have given the world one of the most exciting matches to have ever happened – but sadly, that match-up remained a dream, never to be realised.
But well into their retirement, the two legends and former sparring partners are now teaming up and are starting a development programme to uplift the youth and upcoming fighters in the country. They are working on finding a formula to revive and create interest in the sport of fisticuffs.
“We are still talking and still in the planning stages. But the project is definitely going ahead. We want to come up with an integrated development programme across the country.
“We want to reignite the interest in boxing because it was one of the biggest sports in the country during our days. In fact, boxing used to be the number-two sport in the country after soccer. So, we are putting our heads together to revive the game,” said Thobela.
“There’s so much talent in the country and if you remember, we did not have good facilities back in our days, but we had many world champions like Brian, Baby Jake Matlala, Vuyani Bungu and Welcome Ncita, to mention a few.
“Now with the facilities we have, we should be producing great champions and competing on the world stage.
“We will also get Boxing SA involved because we want to help them in putting boxing at the top where it belongs once again.”
The “Rose of Soweto”, as Thobela was affectionately known, said that they will come up with a formula to bring back the interest and the hype.