The first visit to Africa by the world’s highest paid sportsman brought disappointment, controversy and champagne.
Floyd Mayweather Jr, the undefeated pugilist from the United States, was treated like a king in South Africa, amid questions over who paid for him and his 16-strong entourage to be here.
The Mayweather controversy began as soon as he touched down at OR Tambo Airport, in Johannesburg on January 15. Journalists asked him why he was in the country. He replied that he was unsure, but he was here.
In a statement, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) described Mayweather’s visit as a tour of goodwill.
&#8220;No financial liabilities were incurred by our office for bringing Mayweather here,&#8221; the minister of sport and recreation, Fikile Mbalula, told the crowd in Soweto.
“We did not cough up a cent for the visit of Mayweather. The state can’t afford to pay his demands. The trip was sponsored by someone [whose name] I can’t disclose in the media,” says Mbalula’s spokesman, Paena Galane.
All we know for certain is that Mayweather was in the country to endorse a project called ‘Reawakening the Giant’, which aims to resuscitate boxing, a sport that once filled South Africans with pride. He was supposed to inspire young boxers and take part in coaching clinics for a week.
The 36 year old and five-division world champion instead spent a mere two days doing boxing work—shaking hands and sharing positive thoughts with people. On his second day in the country, with Mbalula in tow, Mayweather renamed the renowned Dube Boxing Gym in Soweto after Baby Jake Matlala, the late South African boxer and former world champion. There was a large crowd in attendance, but Mayweather made a hasty exit after the ceremony, much to the chagrin of his passionate fans.
Even worse, thousands of fans traveled long distances to other major cities to meet up with Mayweather but the American had other priorities. He instead went on shopping spree, enjoyed a nature reserve in the North West province and then visited Robben Island, where the late president, Nelson Mandela, was incarcerated for 18 years.
Mayweather refused to visit Mandela’s former cell 46664—saying he had spent two months in a cell and didn’t want to see another one. In 2012, he served a jail sentence for battering his ex-girlfriend.
Deprived of his luxurious lifestyle, Mayweather told people at a gala dinner in Johannesburg, he immediately drove his Bentley to his house and had his nails and hair treated by personal aides once he was released.
“As the ministry, we would have loved to have had him for the five days but we had to accept his terms because we didn’t pay a cent for him being here. We were glad that Soweto people benefited from his memorabilia that was auctioned for R800,000 ($71,000). This will help establish their academy and revamp the gym,” says Galane.
Mayweather also had a reunion with the only African to have fought him, Phillip Ndou, at a dinner. Ndou, who had the hopes of Africa on his shoulders, suffered a technical knockout to the American in their 2003 fight in Las Vegas. This encounter at Emperors Palace, in eastern Johannesburg, was equally excruciating for the South African, who is making a comeback after the brain damage he suffered in 2004.
“There’s a gentleman in the audience by the name of Phillip Ndou, I believe you know him, I believe you punched him, I believe you knocked him out,” the master of ceremonies and local sports reporter, Robert Marawa, said to Mayweather before calling Ndou up on stage.
Once on stage with Mayweather, Ndou appealed for a rematch.
“Look, as I stand here I can proudly say I fought the best in the world and I would like to do it again,” said Ndou.
“If you wanna be the best, you gotta fight the best. That particular time he was one of the tough guys. He put pressure on me, he bruised me,” said Mayweather.
Marawa declared that Ndou was not fit enough to continue boxing, which many in the audience thought was condescending. Mayweather politely suggested that his former opponent consider retirement.
“To fight Mayweather you need to have a chin. In Phillip Ndou’s fight, his chin wasn’t too bad for the seven rounds, Mayweather caught him out. Mayweather is a class act, you have to be really good to beat him,” says Brian Mitchell, a South African manager and former WBA and IBF world champion.
“When he says he is the best, he is not just saying it in words. Many men had fallen [when facing Mayweather], and among them is our own Phillip Ndou,” says Mbalula.
When FORBES AFRICA later interviewed Ndou, he said he was unfazed by the suggestion that he should consider retiring. The 36 year old says he has a few years of boxing left in him.
“Wow man, I never thought I would ever meet with Floyd again. We are friends on Twitter but he doesn’t reply to my tweets. I wasn’t joking about the rematch in South Africa. I believe I am the only guy who can stop his unbeaten record. I know the media have written me off,” says Ndou.
Before the American returned home, Steve Masike, a co-founder of the renamed gym, fired a salvo. Masike acknowledged the plan to rename their gym was announced at a memorial service for Matlala, but claims there was no further consultation with them.
“As a sensible man, I expected someone from the minister’s office to call us and discuss the way forward. The gym has a committee, there’s a constitution, [we are] not a one man-show,” says Masike.
Galane disputes this claim.
“We are aware of the people who are rubbishing our efforts to build the Baby Jake Matlala Boxing Academy. The founders of the gym are not involved, hence they were never part of the discussions, the club has its management that we consulted with,” he says.
Galane says the gym is the property of City of Johannesburg.
“We didn’t need the founders’ permission, we had the consent of the Johannesburg Boxing Organization,” he says.
Jeff Ngwenya, the Johannesburg Boxing Organization chairman, said that the correct people at the Dube gym were fully involved in the renaming process.
Mbalula initially attempted to get Mayweather to attend the South African Sports Awards, a ceremony that was criticized because of the large amount of money spent on it. Whether Mayweather’s visit to the country was a success or not is still up in the air, but Mbalula’s dream of hobnobbing with the American superstar was certainly fulfilled.

Money, Secrets And Low Blows  As Mayweather Lands In Africa

Dingaan Thobela is among the top of the list when mentioning South African sport legends. Thobela was a brilliant boxer and his achievements in the ring have earned him legendary status.
He had an illustrious boxing career but, just like any other sport hero, Thobela went through ups and downs.
“I had a great boxing career and I am so thankful to all the people that supported me throughout the years. I had many wonderful moments as well as tough moments in boxing and I gave my best in everything that I did as a fighter,” says Thobela.
“I learned a lot during my fighting days and now that I have retired I still have a passion for boxing. I am involved as a promoter and trying my best to help young boxers who want to emulate me.”
Thobela, known as ‘The Rose of Soweto’, began on the dusty streets of the township to become a household name.
He had a few high profile fights that put him in the spotlight and he always had many South African fans cheering him on whenever he entered the ring. When he won his first national title against Mpisekhaya Mbaduli, doors were opened for him. He was ultimately victorious at international level, beating Mauricio Aceves to win the WBO lightweight title in 1990.
His most popular fight was against Tony Lopez, which Thobela lost. Many boxing experts thought he was robbed of a result and a rematch at Sun City was organized. He did well enough in that bout to convince the judges he was the worthy champion.
“A lot of people remember my fight against Lopez because he was such a good fighter. I lost my first fight against him because of a controversial decision, so I was happy when the rematch was organized. I won the rematch and was helped by the support of a lot of people at home,” says Thobela.
“I believed in myself and I believed that I had what it took to do well against Lopez. I was really motivated for that fight.”
As more and more money was rolling into his bank account, Thobela started to gain weight, which affected his performance. He later lost his title to Orsubek Nazarov in one of his worst performances in the ring.
After taking a break for almost two years, Thobela made a comeback but struggled as age caught up with him.
“I was a disciplined fighter because I worked hard and I was focused. My strength was my mental capacity, as I used to analyze each fight,” he says.
“My fight against Mbaduli Mpisekhaya was very interesting because he was a strong fighter and he was determined to win. I had prepared myself well for that fight and I was ready for the battle. It is good that I stayed focused during that fight and was able to win.”
Thobela had always looked up to Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard and says his fighting style was based on theirs.
To this day, he attracts the attention of people whenever he walks down the street. He even takes the time to assist young boxers that ask him for advice.
“When I was young, there were other professional boxers that I used to watch in order to improve as a fighter. Now I am interested in giving back my knowledge to young fighters who are also determined to make an impact like I did. I am involved in marketing and promoting the young fighters who approach me for help,” he says.
“In boxing there is a lot that is needed when preparing for a fight. A young fighter may have potential but that is not enough. I do my best to give advice because I am very passionate about boxing. I also approach some sponsors to help wherever they can.”
Back in the day, Thobela and Jacob ‘Baby Jake’ Matlala were role models to many people in the townships. Thobela says he still keeps in touch with Matlala as they are both passionate about the development of boxing in South Africa. He is aware of how boxers often earn decent money while they are active but struggle financially after they retire.
“I do communicate with Baby Jake whenever the need arises and we do talk about how we can contribute and make the difference,” says Thobela.
“Today, boxing is not of the same standard. Back in the day, there was myself, Baby Jake and Vuyani Bungu,” he says.
“Development is key; it is the feeder to the professional ranks. Young boxers need to be guided properly from an early age and I would like to see Boxing South Africa ensuring that managers look after their fighters when they sign a contract.”
Thobela is now in the funeral insurance industry and runs his own business, The Rose, in Chiawelo, Soweto. He was always aware that he could not be a professional boxer forever, so he prepared himself for business while he was still fighting.
Thobela copes well with the challenges he faces. There is plenty of competition in the business, but he feels that through good managerial skills and with the right people around him, he will be able to survive and succeed.
“Our aim is to help people and make a difference. I would say that the business is doing fine because I also manage to help some young boxers with the money from The Rose,” he says.
“Of course there are some challenges, such as when you don’t get materials on time from suppliers. But, I am as committed in business as I was in boxing.”
Thobela keeps his eye on the South African economy and is aware of the weak rand that is affecting the market.
“I manage my schedule well and I know when the time is right to do certain things. It is also important to stay updated on what is happening in the market,” he says.

How The Rose Of Soweto Rose

Brian Mitchell grew up in a ring. When he was three years old, his father, Brian Mitchell senior, was a South African bantamweight champion. He was throwing punches from the age of nine. In the late 1980s, his boxing career lit up with 45 wins, 21 knock-outs, 12 World Boxing Association (WBA) Super Featherweight titles and an International Boxing Federation (IBF) Super Featherweight title. They called him the ‘Road Warrior’; he couldn’t fight at home because of sanctions in South Africa. Boxing brought him tragedy as well as fame. Now he is on the road again, paving the way ahead by spotting new boxers.
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From the ring to the ringside seat, the ‘Road Warrior’ says his name is one of the many reasons why boxers in Africa are drawn to his gym.
“It was quite a simple process for me. I had retired undefeated and to stay with boxing was easy for me. I left the game for three years, never went close to a gym or a fight, then I decided that boxing had been my whole life, and I opened a gym and became a trainer,” he says.
After training boxers for 10 years, Mitchell decided to move into the business side, using all the knowledge of his 35 years in the boxing world.
Mitchell’s rise to fame was hardly glamorous. He was raised in a broken home on the rough side of Johannesburg, in Troyeville. Mitchell grew up fighting in the streets more than in the ring. It steeled him through 10 years as an amateur. By the time he turned professional he was well conditioned and fame beckoned. On a spring evening in 1986, Mitchell won the World Super Featherweight title against Panama’s Alfredo Layne at Sun City, in the North West province of South Africa.
Victory proved bittersweet. South Africa was shunned from international sport because of apartheid. It forced Mitchell to become a wandering champion; traveling the globe to fight opponents on their home turf, with few South Africans to cheer him on.
“I think the fact that I was never able to defend my title in my own country did a lot for me. I had to all of a sudden become a man and stand on my own two feet and be half a politician and half a world champion boxer. Wherever I went I was bombarded with questions about apartheid and being a white South African. I had to stand up for myself from that point of view. I had to say ‘look I’m not a politician, I am a boxer, but what I know about politics, where I come from, boxing in the townships has no racial issues,’” he says.
“It was tough but it worked for me. It helped me to get to the hall of fame in boxing in 2009. In hindsight, all the hardships made my career. Fighting my opponents in their backyard and earning dollars helped me a lot. I didn’t have anybody bugging me for fight tickets. You had nobody around,” says Mitchell.
Nearly 30 years on, Mitchell has found many promising fighters. Among them is Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Ilunga ‘Junior’ Makabu. He has fought everyone he can in Africa and Mitchell is lining Makabu, who now has a WBC cruiserweight silver belt, up for fights in Monte Carlo.
“He can compete with the best in the world. He in fact phoned me to manage him. He said he wasn’t getting enough activity, enough fights. He knew I could get him fights so he phoned me and we did a bit of a deal,” he says.
According to Mitchell, boxing in Africa is on the rise. The popularity of what he calls boxercising, people who like training but never intend to fight, has increased interest.
“Boxing is a funny sport. Through the years it goes up and down. Right now, there are a lot of good fighters in the world. There is a lot of talk about boxing. A few years ago, it was going through a bit of a slump. It depends on who the actual figureheads are at the time. You need those personalities, like Floyd Mayweather and Muhammad Ali.”
In South Africa, top fights draw in crowds of 3,000. A Mayweather fight in Las Vegas gets 100,000. But most of the money in boxing is made from pay-per-view.
“In the States, pay-per-view is huge. Hundreds of millions of people will pay to watch a fight. The casinos pay to host them as well. Imagine two million hits paying $100 to watch a fight. Supersport [South African sport channel] will pay $200,000 for the fight,” says Mitchell.
Mayweather’s fight against Saul ‘Canelo’Alvarez drew $150 million in pay-per-view revenue with 2.2 million buys. The prize money is nothing to sneeze at either. Mayweather was expected to roll in a guaranteed $41.5 million appearance fee and a final take could approach $100 million after ticket sales, according to FORBES magazine. Makabu gets $10,000 for his fights.
“You’ve got to make it big. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are some of the highest paid sportsmen in the world. But they are the best in the world. I wouldn’t say it’s the best-paid sport in the world. If you get to the top, you’ll be a superstar. Guys have much better equipment available. They have fancy machines with treadmills, nutritionists and sports psychologists. That’s changed for the better. But I think the fighters were better in the seventies and the eighties than they are now. I think as far as toughness goes and work ethic and training in the gym, there were more characters worldwide that stood out in the eighties,” says Mitchell.
The glitz and glam of boxing does have its dark shadows. Mitchell’s longest shadow was cast by the death of Sowetan-born Jacob ‘Dancing Shoes’ Morake, the only boxer to beat Mitchell in a fight. Mitchell connected with a right cross to Morake’s head. The knock-out punch ended with Morake’s neck hitting the ropes. He never regained consciousness, dying in hospital a day later.
Mitchell says he paid for the funeral and it was hard to move on.  But he did.
“It was something that happened that you don’t expect to happen and you don’t want to happen. I wouldn’t have won a world title if I had retired after a fight like that. I left it. I can’t take the blame for it directly; it was part of the sport. You are going out there to knock him out and beat him, but you’re not looking for a tragedy.”
According to Bob Yearham, in charge of boxing at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg, Mitchell is the face of the sport in Africa.
“He’s a great man and presenter; he’s rubbed shoulders with the best,” he says.
The man who is a legend in boxing rings around the country is humble about his exploits. He says his most memorable punch was thrown where it all began; facing off with Layne. He’s also a man who doesn’t really enjoy boxing movies, but has a secret respect for Rocky and Million Dollar Baby. You could say the ‘Road Warrior’ has traveled every avenue in boxing. The only thing you could say he hasn’t done, is bite off someone’s ear.

The Road Warrior Points The Way

As Floyd Mayweather earned a massive $41.5 million from his most recent fight against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in Las Vegas, South African Phillip Ndou, who fought him a decade ago, was preparing to fight a nobody in Namibia for $4,544. One fighter on the crest of a triumphant wave; the other beached and struggling with a painful comeback. Both connected, and divided, by the outcome of one fight.
Rarely in sport has there been such a yawning gap in fortunes. Mayweather and Ndou, both 36, stand at opposite ends of the boxing scale. Mayweather has fought 45 times with 26 knockouts and remains undefeated. He is a world champion in five divisions and holds eight titles.
<div id="attachment_2342" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2342" class="size-medium wp-image-2342" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/119037604-300x223.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="223" />Floyd Mayweather throws a right hand at Phillip Ndou early in the WBC lightweight championship fight. (Photo by Matthew Mitchell/Getty Images)</div>
Ndou, known as ‘Time Bomb’, has been sidelined by a brain injury he suffered in 2004. He is now trying to scrape his way back to his former glory.
On November 1, 2003, Ndou and Mayweather stood as equals, toe-to-toe for a WBC lightweight title fight in Michigan, United States. Big puncher Ndou was the hope of Africa that night, but Mayweather knocked him out in the seventh round. Mayweather earned $3 million and Ndou $250,000.
On the night Mayweather beat Alvarez for the WBC and WBA light-middleweight titles, Ndou was watching on television. The South African knew Mayweather would win.
“When I fought him he was not this experienced. Our mistake was we went out to prove a point, which is the weakness Mayweather capitalized on,” says Ndou.
The loss to Mayweather resulted in fading fortunes for Ndou. Seven months later, Ndou lost again to fellow countryman Isaac Hlatshwayo. He collapsed minutes after the fight.
Doctors ruled Ndou unfit to box after a brain scan. The former South African and WBA International featherweight champion, and WBU and WBC international junior lightweight champion, was forced to retire at the young age of 27.
The years after that defeat were spent in the wilderness of television commentary and a cameo in a local soap opera Muvhango. In a role scripted for him, Ndou played a boxing trainer in a club named after him—Time Bomb. That was as near to acclaim as it got for him.
Television brought instant money but a return to the ring took five years.
“I appreciated what people offered to keep me going and [help me] earn a living. But, I am an entertainer in the boxing ring; I missed my days of boxing.”
Ndou returned to the sport in February, 2009, defeating Frenchman, Rachid Drilzane, on a technical knockout in Saint-Quentin, France.
Under a new trainer, Bernie Pailman, Ndou is pursuing a strong comeback. He beat Pius Dipheko in June, climbing to fourth place in the South African welterweight ranking.
“I remain the only pound-for-pound titlist in Africa. I am on a mission to claim my former glory back. I will be a world champion again. I know I have it in me. Thirty six is just a number. I still have many more years [left in the ring],” Ndou says.
“I have never been operated on or taken medication, but here I am. I am grateful to God. He has been there for me.”
In boxing, female managers are rare. Promise Moyo, who manages Ndou, is not going to let her gender get in her, or Ndou’s, way. She was previously a deputy director at a municipality before acquiring her boxing promotion license late last year.
Namibia’s HS Okungo Promotions contracted Ndou for two fights in Windhoek, one against little-known Pohamba Mandume, which he won in eight rounds. Ndou will return to the country in November to fight a contender that is yet to be announced.
“In the few months I have been with Phillip, we secured the Namibian contract and he is in line to challenge for the title. Things are shaping up,” says an upbeat Moyo.
Moyo says the amount of money Ndou earns for a fight is not that important, all they want is to secure more fights and then get him back to the level required for top-notch international bouts.
“The fight against Pius earned him R25,000 ($2,499) and now he is going to Namibia for R45,000 ($4,499), we don’t see things in money terms but the leverage he’s getting day-by-day,” says Moyo.
“Phillip is so disciplined. You can’t believe he is a three-time former champion. Since he’s joined the gym, he’s been consistent and behaved like a hungry student. He has shown commitment to my ground rules,” says Pailman.
Ndou has spent six months training with Pailman, who is known as one of the quietest, yet wisest men in the business.
“We come a long way. We both know what is expected of each other. I am here to learn and he’s the teacher. If you want to work with me, I am not a child anymore and should not be treated like one. I respect trainers who show respect to their boxers,” says Ndou.
“The Namibians can be a clean-up on our front door before going to look outside. But my benchmark for him is Kaizer Mabuza,” says Pailman.
Mabuza is a highly ranked South African who put up a good fight against American and former undisputed world champion, Zab Judah, two years ago. Mabuza lost by a technical knockout.
If Lady Luck smiles on Ndou, the former champion’s dream of fighting before his own people in Thohoyandou, in northern South Africa, for the first time since he turned professional in 1996, could be realized.
You could argue Ndou has done his fair share of the drudgery in the scullery of the fight game, through a beating from Mayweather and recovery from brain damage. If ever there was an African Cinderella, Ndou should surely go to the ball.

Cinderella Man and the  $41.5 Million Slugger

It is mid-morning and the bright light of a South African spring shafts through the windows. Outside, the bush birds twitter contentedly in the garden, inside, the whistle and thud of gloves pierce the air of the tiny gym in the suburb of Linden in Johannesburg.
Inside the ropes of the ring, Alan Toweel is having the time of his life behind the training pads; taking the punches to his palms, before wheeling his arms, shoulder high, to force his fighter to bob and weave. It is a work out that gleams with sweat and concentration. It is training to hone the skills and reaction that can make the difference between sweet victory and defeat in a bloody heap.
“People say boxing is dead, I don’t think so,” says Toweel with his broad smile.
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To say Toweel has made a change and taken a risk, late in life, is almost like saying Muhammad Ali was quick on his feet. Six months before spending his days sweating in the ring, Toweel occupied a cozy desk at the South African Revenue Service in Johannesburg, where he was a senior manager with 24 pensionable years of service under his belt. At the time he quit public service, for a life of boxing gloves and punch bags, he was offered an executive position at the age of 47.
“I was told it was a very good job and they were a bit surprised by my decision. I still get phone calls about it now from colleagues who can’t believe it!” he says.
“It is a bit risky, but I am a fitness trainer as well, so it all helps pay the bills. I am probably the only boxing trainer in the country who has a B.Com in finance and a higher diploma in tax.”
It is a tough game to switch to. There are too many titles and vested interests in the boxing world where a canny negotiator is as useful a solid right hook.
“There are too many titles, they should unify them and make it more interesting,” says Toweel.
The financial decision for Toweel to chance it, in the topsy-turvy world of professional boxing, was a split decision on points. Emotionally, to extend the metaphor, it was a first round knockout.
For Toweel, boxing is his working week and his Sunday rest. He is one of the fighting Toweels, the tough Johannesburg family, which produced a string of professional boxers. They include his late uncle, Vic Toweel, the Benoni Atom, a world-class battling bantamweight who won the world title in 1950 and ended up on the cover of The Ring Magazine.
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“He was the best this country has ever produced, he was this country’s only universal and undisputed world champion,” says Toweel.
On the walls above the ring, are pictures telling the story of the gloved Toweels with all their championship belts, knockouts, sweat and glory. As a young man, Toweel did his ring apprenticeship with the gloves and carrying the ice bucket in the corner. His relatives ran a string of professional fighters over decades.
In the ring below, one of Toweel’s new charges is one of many fighters who would give his eye teeth for the accumulated glory of the pictures above. Zolani Marali’s fists are pounding the pads like his life depends upon it and in a funny way, it does.
For months, Toweel has been training Marali for his last shot at greatness against father time and growing odds. If anyone has a claim to being Africa’s Rocky, it is Marali, the fighter who learned to box in his father’s garage in Mdantsane, near East London, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
The light welterweight is ranked fourth in South Africa and 67th in the world with five defeats in 26 professional fights. At the age of 35, Marali is deemed in his last five minutes as a professional boxer. The wiry southpaw, with his quick feet and sharp jab, was once known as “Untouchable”, now the young fighters call him “Old Bones”. Like Rocky, he believes there is at least one more fight in him and that he can defy the critics to be a champion of the people, standing proudly in the limelight, one last time. In any case, he needs two or three more good purses to set himself up after the final bell.
“I want to get enough money to set up my own gym back at home so I can train youngsters and make a living,” says Marali.
Toweel came across Marali at Emperor’s Palace, in Johannesburg , on a night of defeat in 2009. Marali lost to the up-and-coming South Korean, Ji-Hoon Kim, in a technical knockout in the ninth.
“His style was asking for a good right hand, he was fooling around and he got caught. I predicted that night that he would get knocked out. After that, he was written off and lost everything. About a year ago his manager came to me and said no one wanted to train him and months later we began to work together,” says Toweel.
“I want him to win three more fights to set him up for the future. He has got a bit of fuel left in his tank. He is a very determined and disciplined fighter, but he still has a lot to learn.”
On November 3, in Marali’s old stamping ground of East London, this education will be put to the test against what is likely to be a severe examination at the swift hands of Ali ‘Rush Hour’ Funeka, a classy fighter, ranked 41st in the world, who has fought in Las Vegas.
The fight has all the history and needle that makes for interesting boxing.
The two boxers fought their hearts out at Monte Casino in Johannesburg on November 19, 2011 for the vacant WBF light welterweight world title. Funeka won on a split decision.
“I thought he [Marali] won the first fight and I think the re-match in East London will be one of the best fights you will ever see,” says Toweel.
To spice it up even more is backyard rivalry. Marali and Funeka grew up and trained together in Mdantsane. They have been fighting each other since the age of 12.
“It is a bit like one of those kung fu films… You remember, 20 years ago you killed my father, you remember?” laughs Marali.
“Our wives are even friends with each other, but on the night there will be no laughing, just killing.”
Toweel wants to make sure Marali laughs last on his way to comfortable retirement to prove a boxing point on behalf of both of them.
Only the hardest of hearts would deny the Rocky of Africa one last hurrah.
<h4>The Agony of Victory</h4>
It was a story written in blood on an African night of fistic fury. Twenty thousand people screamed victory and millions listened in on radio as the referee raised the right arm of the new world champion, Vic Toweel, at the end of 15 grueling rounds. His battered and swollen face managed a faint smile and even planted a good natured kiss on the cheek of his equally bruised opponent, but inside he must have been in agony.
Toweel was taken from the ring to hospital where surgeons operated on his broken nose and busted ear drum. He was to spend the first week of his two-year reign as champion between the operating table and a hospital bed. It was the painful end to a victory that put the image of the young fighter from Africa on the streets of New York and on the cover of the boxing bible, The Ring.
In only his 14th bout, after a mere 16 months of professional boxing, Toweel had weathered a barrage of punches to reach the pinnacle of his chosen career. He was the new world bantamweight champion and South Africa’s only undisputed and universal title holder. Those were the days, a world away from the current plethora of throwaway alphabet soup titles, when there were eight weight divisions and eight world champions.
It was even sweeter for the Toweel camp that the title was taken from a truly elegant and world-class fighter, Manuel Ortiz, of Corona, California, one of the world’s great bantamweights who notched up 100 victories in 131 fights.
Many argue that Ortiz, then 33, was on his way down as a fighter, when he fought Toweel at Wembley Stadium, in Johannesburg. He had held the world title for more than two years after winning it in 1949, in Honolulu, Hawaii, the home town of Dado Marino.
Certainly, black-and-white film of the fight shows Ortiz oozing confidence as he breezed into the ring in a silk dressing gown looking like he was going for a Martini cocktail instead of a punishing boxing match. When Ortiz realized he was behind on points in the latter rounds he threw everything bar the kitchen sink at Toweel, so it was no easy ride for the new champion.
It was the fruit of years of sweat for the Toweel boxing clan. Toweel, who fought at the London Olympics in 1948, had been boxing with his brothers since the age of nine.
The patriarch of the family, Mike Toweel, who had immigrated to South Africa from Lebanon at the turn of the 20th century, had trained his sons to box in a tin shack at the back of the family home in Benoni in eastern Johannesburg. Each one was to make his mark
in boxing.
Toweel, a former woodcarver, held on to his title until November 15, 1952 when he lost to Australian Jimmy Carruthers at the Rand Stadium in Johannesburg, before 28,000 people. There were attempts at a comeback, but Toweel, who struggled with his weight and breathing problems, caused by his many nose injuries, called it a day after 28 fights, three defeats and one draw. He emigrated in the 1980s and died in Sydney, Australia, in 2008, aged 80, leaving a legacy of grit and determination that made the name of the Benoni Atom.

The Boxing Civil Servant  In Rocky’s Corner

After their poor showing against the Klitschko brothers—both losing in 12 rounds—British heavyweights Dereck Chisora and David Haye had their day in the sun, when they squared off against each other at Upton Park in London.
Many forces tried to stop the fight going ahead, including the British Boxing Control Board. The reason was that despite both Chisora and Haye being unlicensed in Britain, both men had behaved badly in front of the international media following Chisora’s loss to World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko in Germany. Chisora and Haye were involved in an unsavory brawl at the post-fight conference, culminating in the former being briefly detained by the German authorities and gaining himself an outright ban from boxing in his adopted country of England.
Despite protracted efforts to stop the grudge fight from taking place, the momentum of what happened in Germany at the post-fight conference of the Klitschko-Chisora bout was too much for the fight not to happen. You see, there’s hype to promote fights and there’s just plain hype. With the Chisora-Haye brawl, it was no hype at all. Both boxers got involved in a genuine fight and it seemed Chisora was serious when he threatened to hunt Haye down and shoot him. Such was the animosity between the two pugilists that a German promotional outfit quickly jumped on the bandwagon and signed both boxers to fight each other, not in Germany but in England, where the tournament was guaranteed a 30,000 sell out. However, the promoters had to deal with all the opposition to the fight and after they weathered the storm, the interest was so huge that there was no turning back.
The result was a proper fight in the ring at Upton Park and Haye prevailed courtesy of a 5th round knockout over his tormentor. If anything, the outcome confirmed two things: that Haye is a much better boxer than the one who lost a lopsided bout against Wladimir Klitschko last year, after predicting that he would knock out the WBA/WBO/IBF heavyweight champion; that Chisora is much better off shooting with his mouth than with his fists and that the only reason he went the distance with Vitali Klitschko was because he applied safety-first tactics and never took any chances. Chisora was also exposed as nothing but an overblown cruiserweight.
As expected, Haye made hay while the sun shone on him, following his knockout victory over Chisora. He called for a clash with Vitali because he stopped the man who the Ukrainian went the full distance with. But the truth of the matter is that the only reason Haye managed to knock out Chisora was that the former Zimbabwean threw caution to the wind and engaged with Haye. Had he adopted the same strategy against Vitali, the outcome would have been similar and the knockout probably would have come even sooner. With the Klitschko brothers all but out of credible opponents, Haye will probably get another shot at the heavyweight title, while Chisora will be relegated to the ‘stepping-stone’ heap. He has now lost three times as a pro—Tyson Fury being another loss.
After all is said and done, Haye’s win over Chisora benefitted a leukemia charity to the tune of £20,000. Chisora honored the pre-match bet he made with Haye and made the £20,000 donation to the African-Caribbean Leukemia Trust (ACLT), of which Haye is a patron. The money will be used to support the charity in their work to spread awareness and increase the number of bone marrow, blood and organ donors from ethnic minorities.
Perhaps it would have been magnanimous of Haye to also donate £20,000 of his purse money to the same cause.

Grudge Match Of  The Century

Heavyweight boxers David Haye and Dereck Chisora have been trying to get at each other for weeks now—on July 14, they will get their chance at West Ham’s Upton Park football ground in London. A crowd of 40,000 is expected, the biggest in Britain since Ricky Hatton beat Juan Lazcano in May 2008.
Both fighters will be unlicensed and angry; neither will earn any boxing ranking points from the fight—merely the grim satisfaction of winning what promises to resemble a street brawl. The British Board of Boxing Control has banned Chisora from fighting; Haye’s license has expired.
The first round of this street brawl was fought out on television, before a bewildered boxing world, at a press conference following Chisora’s loss to Vitali Klitschko for the World Boxing Council heavyweight title, in February at the Olympiahalle in Munich, Germany.
Was it real or staged? Many wondered. What is clear is that the two British boxers don’t like each other and it all boiled over in Munich.
It was the stuff the tabloids dream of. The Klitschkos’ manager, Bernd Boente, announced that no more British boxers would be given the right to challenge the world heavyweight champions, Vitali and Wladimir. This was a reaction to Chisora’s unbecoming behavior—to say the
least—before the fight.
First, Chisora slapped Vitali at the weigh-in. Then he spat on his younger brother, Wladimir, just before the fight.
After the fight it got worse. Haye, who had lost to Wladimir a few months earlier, was in the crowd of journalists at the post-fight conference. He objected to Boente’s statement about British boxers and demanded a rematch.
Sensing that Haye was stealing the show, Chisora responded by charging off the stage to attack Haye, verbally and physically. A brawl ensued amid the chaos of tumbling journalists, cameras and flying fists; Haye swung a camera tripod at Chisora. In the confusion, Chisora claimed he was glassed and said that he would either shoot Haye or hunt him down, or both. The German authorities detained 28-year-old Chisora and the British Board of Boxing Control banned him.
Chisora’s father, Paul, a contracts manager at a fireplace manufacturing company in Harare, was quoted in the Zimbabwean newspapers as saying: “If it was me, I could have kept my cool. He is still growing up and did not have anyone older who could restrain him.”
The two camps fixed the fight for July and persuaded the boxing federation of the small European nation of Luxembourg to sanction it because no one else would. This will be the first time a fight will be held in Britain, licensed by a foreign federation. The disgusted Luxembourg government withdrew its subsidies from the federation in protest.
It is a big story swirling around a young man from Zimbabwe. Chisora was born and bred in Harare and left for Britain to join his mother in 1999. He fights out of Finchley—Margaret Thatcher’s old constituency—and is a naturalized Briton with an accent more cockney than Shona.
Chisora fought 20 times as an amateur, before turning professional in 2007. Before he was banned, he was ranked 13th in the world heavyweight division, notching up 15 wins in 18 fights, with nine knock-outs. His winning streak of eight fights ended with the boxing authorities suspending Chisora for four months for biting journeyman boxer Paul Butlin in a heavyweight clash at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, London. As a result, he missed a fight for the British Heavyweight title against Danny Williams in 2009. He would defeat Williams a year later to become the British champion.
What irked Chisora was that Haye was given the opportunity to challenge for the world title first. Haye went on to lose to Wladimir in a poor showing after declaring that he would knock out both the Klitschko brothers in one night. Haye later claimed that he went into the fight with a broken toe.
By the way, Chisora went to Churchill Boys High School in
Harare—its mascot is a bulldog. Its spirit follows him still.

Grimy Grudge Match

When he was young, Evander Holyfield’s dream was to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Considered too small for a heavyweight, some gave him no chance against the big guys of the time. So Holyfield went about it the correct way.
<div id="attachment_215" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-215" class="size-full wp-image-215" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/RTR1J8AF.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="1003" />Evander Holyfield</div>
First, he unified the Cruiserweight division by defeating the likes of Dwight Muhammad Qawi (WBA), Carlos De Leon (WBC) and Ossie Ocasio (IBF). That was when only the WBA, WBC and IBF world belts mattered. Nowadays, of course, we are talking about the alphabet soup; IBF, WBC, WBA, WBO, IBO, IBC, WBU, WBF and goodness knows what other titles are yet to emerge. The result is that in this day and age, it is pointless and meaningless for boxers to even think about being called undisputed world champions.
Holyfield then went about chasing his dream right from his first fight—a six-round victory over unknown journeyman, Lionel Byarm, at Madison Square Garden, New York in November 1984. He proved his worth as a heavyweight and earned his right to fight for the world heavyweight championship by defeating James Tillis, Pinklon Thomas, Michael Dokes, Adilson Rodrigues, Alex Stewart and Seamus McDonagh. He could and should have then faced the undefeated, undisputed heavyweight king of the time, Mike Tyson.
The only problem was James Buster Douglas knocked out Tyson in the 10th round in Tokyo to claim his title.
So it was Douglas that Holyfield faced and knocked out in the third round at the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in October 1990 to be crowned the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
So then, what is Evander Holyfield talking about when he says he is still boxing because his goal is to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world? He is telling anybody and everybody who will listen, including me, that he continues to fight at the ripe age of 48 because he hasn’t reached his goal of being called “undisputed” champion. He says for as long as it takes to become the undisputed champion, he will continue to box. I gave up continuing this line of questioning when I realized I was not going to get anywhere.
Moving quickly along, next question: Do people ask him a lot about the infamous ear biting courtesy of Mike Tyson? This happened in June 1997 at the MGM Grand Las Vegas when Tyson, facing certain back-to-back defeat at the hands of Holyfield, took the easy way out when he got himself disqualified by biting off a piece of Evander’s ear, not once but twice. Holyfield’s answer to this question was a terse NO; no one asks him anymore about that fateful night these days, he says. Holyfield had to be rushed to hospital that night for doctors to attach a piece of his ear. Holyfield does say, though, he has forgiven Tyson and the two last met and spoke a year ago at a function.
Holyfield says he has no connections with Africa but has ambitions of fighting on the continent before finally hanging up his gloves. He thinks given resources and time, African boxing could be great.
In his twilight years, Holyfield has travelled the globe, fighting in Moscow in 2007, Switzerland in 2008, and Denmark in 2011. All his other fights, 57 in total, happened in the USA.
Without revealing much, Holyfield says he has enough business outside boxing and like most people, has lost money in the past in bad investments. He earns a lot from speeches and celebrity appearances.
Holyfield says sometimes he feels like boxing takes too much of his business time. But he loves who he is and still enjoys boxing, and wouldn’t swap careers for anything.
Another pugilist who appears to have had no problem leaving the ring and going into business is George Foreman, the man who lost his title to Muhammad Ali in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa in 1974. Foreman has since made a fortune selling grills.
Holyfield says whereas he is happy for Foreman, he will still remain Evander Holyfield and does not wish to trade places with Big George. Holyfield beat Foreman on points in April 1999 when he defended his three titles.
All said and done, the man they call the Real Deal, despite fighting way past his sell-by date, will always have his place in boxing’s hall of fame. The only man to have won the biggest prize in boxing, the world heavyweight championship an unprecedented four times, he remains humble and professional. He never enters the ring less than 100% fit and always gives more than 100%.
For one so fit, incredibly, Holyfield was struck down by a heart attack in his mid-30s. He was told by the doctors he would never fight again.
Miraculously, his heart healed completely and he has boxed on, undeterred, for more than a decade.
Fighting spirit has driven Holyfield on. He hopes that big money deal to fight in Africa will come one day, but even for the tenacious Real Deal, time is surely running out.

Tag: Boxing

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The Boxing Civil Servant In Rocky’s Corner

Grudge Match Of The Century

Grimy Grudge Match

The Real Deal — I Will Box In Africa Before The Final Bell