It was a nightmare for the African Rocky amid the howls of the hecklers, against a younger and bigger fighter. The once washed-up Zolani Marali had the odds stacked against him in a bloody night in East London, South Africa. Marali was on the ropes so often that they cut his back open. Everyone could see the blood because he was on the run, to the anger of the crowd.
“Get off the bicycle and fight. We paid to watch good boxing, not your running around,” shouted a man in the crowd.
Kaizer Mabuza, known as The Animal, bullied Marali for 12 rounds but he held on to his WBF mini-flyweight title. It was a night of the underdog – Nelson Mandela would have been proud.
This boxing night on July 18, Mandela’s birthday, was dedicated to the man, himself a former pugilist. The boxers wanted to win for Mandela, all night they spat blood and bit the canvas. East London is South Africa’s boxing-mad city; children here learn to punch before they learn to talk. It’s about 230 kilometers from where Mandela was born in Mthatha.
“Although I had boxed a bit at Fort Hare, it was not until I had lived in Johannesburg that I took up the sport in earnest. I was never an outstanding boxer. I was in the heavyweight division, and I had neither power to compensate for my lack of speed nor enough speed to make up for my lack of power,” wrote Nelson Mandela in Long Walk To Freedom.
“Nobody celebrates Madiba as a boxer; the intention is to elevate that aspect of his life. People need to understand that there’s no Berlin Wall between politics and sport,” says Ayanda Matiti of Xaba Boxing Promotions that organized the event.
Surely, Marali would have welcomed the Berlin Wall between himself and Mabuza.
Marali clinched and ran from Mabuza, wearing him down. Mabuza soldiered on. Marali weaved and frustrated his opponent, who missed the head time and time again.
Boxing can be a cruel sport and Marali knows how. The 38-year-old, an All Africa Games bronze medallist, was on the verge of quitting five years ago. His fortunes changed under the eye of a new trainer Alan Toweel. Marali’s man in the corner comes from a boxing family, his father, Alan senior, was an outstanding trainer. His uncle, Vic Toweel, was South Africa’s only undisputed world champion – taking the bantamweight title from Manuel Ortiz on May 31, 1950 in Johannesburg.
“When Zolani was knocked out by a Korean in 2009, many boxing purists wrote him off; they told him to retire because he was finished. But I knew there’s something left in him,” says Toweel.
Marali made his comeback when he beat Ali Funeka to claim the world title in East London in 2012. On this night, he defended his title for the second time, winning a split decision against Mabuza – even though he got a bleeding back in the process.
Though fans jeered Marali for avoiding a toe-to-toe fight, Toweel says it was all part of the plan.
“Boxing is not all about fight, it’s about defense also. You run, you clinch and turn a man around. It’s a cat and mouse fight… Kaizer fought top overseas fighters like Zab Judah. There’s no way I was going to let Zolani trade punches with him. From the first round, Kaizer was upset, he was confused and he continuously missed punches. That set the pace of the fight. He landed better punches and didn’t take punishment,” says Toweel.
“At his age, I will continue working on his defense. We will take one fight at a time, he still has some two to three years in his feet.”
Marali’s fight was followed by a much-anticipated bout between Nick Durandt’s former stablemates, Lusanda Komanisi and Macbute Sinyabi. Komanisi showed no respect for his former senior. From the first bell they went at it hammer and tongs.
The younger, quicker Komanisi taunted Sinyabi in the ring. In the fifth round, Komanisi finished it. He caught Sinyabi with a sweeping left hook knocking him to the ropes. The fight could have ended there, but the referee let it go on. Sinyabi took time to get back on his feet. Komanisi battered Sinyabi who tried desperately to clinch. A volley of punches and a big right to the temple polished Sinyabi off.
This brought out the ugly side of boxing. Sinyabi struggled to breathe until paramedics gave him oxygen and walked him to the changing room. Komanisi’s IBO featherweight title brought Durandt’s world championship tally to 38 in 29 years as a manager and trainer.
“I expected the knockout, though I didn’t know which round. Before the beginning of the fifth round I told Lusanda ‘this is your moment,’” says Durandt.
As Marali licked his wounds, he looked forward to wealthier times. Next time he steps into the ring for a defense he can expect to earn up to $40,000 for a night’s work.
Marali is putting the money into his boxing gym in East London for his retirement in the days when he will no longer have to run the ring with blood on his back.