<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="51362" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=51362" class="wp-image-51362" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-2-of-13-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, 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class="wp-image-51370" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-10-of-13-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-10-of-13-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-10-of-13-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-10-of-13-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-10-of-13-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-item__caption"> </figcaption></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-11-of-13-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="51371" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-11-of-13-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=51371" class="wp-image-51371" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-11-of-13-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-11-of-13-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-11-of-13-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-11-of-13-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-11-of-13-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-item__caption"> </figcaption></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="51372" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=51372" class="wp-image-51372" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-12-of-13-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-1024x683.jpg" alt="" data-id="51373" data-full-url="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-scaled.jpg" data-link="https://www.forbesafrica.com/?attachment_id=51373" class="wp-image-51373" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Fight-With-Insight-13-of-13-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></li></ul><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-caption">Young boxers participate in activities at a new Fight With Insight boxing gym, launched on Youth Day at Hillbrow in Johannesburg, South Africa, with founder Luke Lamprecht, the gyms assist in training and feeding inner-city youth in Johannesburg; photographs by Yeshiel Panchia</figcaption></figure>



Today marks 45 years of the Soweto Uprising in South Africa, when thousands of unhappy schoolchildren challenging an apartheid regime fearlessly took to the streets protesting being taught in Afrikaans. June 16 1976 ended in fire, fear and tears. Commemorated as Youth Day in South Africa, FORBES AFRICA captures the rousing emotions of today, but in a boxing ring in inner city Johannesburg, where the youth now bond over sport as part of a broader upliftment program.



June 16 is a hallowed day in South African history, observed as Youth Day commemorating the student uprising of 1976 in Soweto which saw students lead demonstrations against an education system that would eventually lead to menial jobs. Some 20,000 students partook in what was to be a peaceful protest, but when the day was over, at least 176 had been killed by the bullets and brutality of apartheid. The children laid down their lives but it marked a new chapter in South Africa’s liberation struggle.



Across South Africa today are events marking the memory of that fateful day, and FORBES AFRICA joined one such occasion of hope and healing in Hillbrow, a residential neighborhood in Johannesburg, for the opening of a third gym for inner-city youth by Fight With Insight, a youth empowerment initiative directed by Luke Lamprecht, a child protection and development specialist.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Children have had dreams put on hold or broken altogether; schooling has been disrupted; families separated; and food and social security systems taken away from them.”</blockquote>



Lamprecht founded the first such gym in Johannesburg in 2006, and chose Youth Day this year to mark the opening of his latest outlet, offering daily training to aspiring boxers as also supplying healthy meals to them. “2020 has been a bad year to be a child,” says Lamprecht to FORBES AFRICA, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic that put the brakes on the social and psychological development of young children, and dried up the support networks and sustenance that many of them depended on to lead normal lives.



“Children have had dreams put on hold or broken altogether; schooling has been disrupted; families separated; and food and social security systems taken away from them.”



His initiative aims to meet some of these deficiencies, offering camaraderie, exercise, food and above all, belief and purpose to children in need. The advocacy aspect is not new to the personnel at Fight With Insight, as they have provided training and food even within Covid-19 lockdown restrictions all of last year. At their height, they served 1.4 tonnes of food a day. However, this June 16 marks an easier time than the last, with children ending training before their meal by breaking a paper chain – symbolizing breaking free of the challenges and restrictions that hold them back.



Many of the urban youth at the center say they find both their physical and emotional sustenance inside the ring. They are in it to win this perennial fight called life.

Fight With Insight (2 of 13)

Youth Day Photo Essay: Gloves On For The Big Fight Called Life

Tim Hogins’ concept of the outdoor gym is to make health and wellness accessible to all.

Tim Hogins was 11 and selling sweets on the streets when he would look longingly at the queues of people waiting to board the bus to the plush Sun City resort in South Africa.
It was a forbidden world of play and luxury and he was quietly determined to one day build one of his own everyone could access.
The former delivery boy and security guard who grew up in dusty Randfontein in South Africa is today the CEO of Green Outdoor Gyms (GOG), an outdoor health, wellness and lifestyle company growing in size.
<div id="attachment_37215" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37215" class="size-medium wp-image-37215" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />A GOG lifestyle park in Lanseria, Johannesburg</div>
When we meet him, the 39-year-old entrepreneur, who once sold koeksisters (sticky spicy treats), offers a table laden with sweets, savouries and fruit. Hogins helps himself to a slice of banana bread as he begins to tell his story. 
“Growing up poor is actually a good thing. It gave birth to ambition, it gave birth to my desire to be successful,” he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/04/09/painting-houses-building-1-95-billion-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: From Painting Houses To Building A $1.95-Billion Development</a>
“The outdoor gym concept was born because I saw kids doing push-ups and pull-ups in the park.” 
Hogins’ parents died when he was in his 20s. “That is where the Tim Hogins story started,” he says. 
He invested capital with a friend to launch his pet outdoor gym project. GOG’s first park was in the township of Soweto.
“GOG is for the everyday person who cannot afford commercial and expensive gyms. It also doesn’t hinder the high-earning people from using it. South Africa is a family-oriented country, and soon we will have people at the gyms from all walks of life,” he says.
To date, GOG has installed 388 outdoor gyms in South Africa. The company has built two lifestyle parks in Gauteng with a third to follow at the end of the year.
“The health and fitness industry is the largest in the world and it grows year-on-year. I saw an opportunity from a health and fitness perspective. People want to live longer, they want to live healthier so they spend money on health and fitness,” says Hogins.
Growing up, he was no stranger to entrepreneurship.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-37214 alignright" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-300x194.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="194" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-300x194.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-600x389.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-768x498.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-1024x664.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“My dad was trying to survive. We had a café. But as you know a café does not make much money. On the side, he tried to do some construction, and my mom, because of the circumstances, decided to sell too. All my life my parents were selling something. My mom sold koeksisters and cakes; she became a caterer. There were always people at my house buying something, be it sweets, be it toffee apples…We sold whatever,” he recollects.
In his quest to build outdoor wellness areas, many a time it meant turning dusty pieces of land into landscaped spaces.
<blockquote>“In many instances, we literally transformed a dumping site into an outdoor gym. One instance you see a dumping site and the next you see kids on swings and gym equipment all around,” he says.</blockquote>
Engaging the community, GOG also uplifts the areas it operates in.
With hopes to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange next year, Hogins will give his staff an opportunity to invest in his vision.

09.05.2018-65

Turning Dusty Spaces Into Green Gyms

On a cool evening, Idrisu is gearing up for his daily workout. Today, he is doing a combination of squats, endurance exercises and boxing routines. He started this new regime a little over a month ago and so far the results have been life changing.
“I started at this gym because I needed to get fit very quickly and I was looking for a gym that could guarantee results at a moderate price,” says Idrisu.
The owner of the gym is entrepreneur Rehia Giwa-Osagie who is determined to get the nation fit again through boxing. Osagie is the founder of EliteBox, a speciality fitness and boxing gym designed to help clients like Idrisu, achieve remarkable health results. Today, Osagie, who doubles as a personal trainer, is working with Mark, who joined the gym last week.
“I have never been to a gym like this, the combination of fitness routines that Rehia designs is specific to your needs. I wanted to build muscles and see results quickly and in a week I can already see progress,” he says.
Mark and Idrisu are part of a new wave of fitness that is sweeping Nigeria. For Osagie, the journey began a decade ago due to injury.
“I used to play semi-professional football in England, then I injured my knee so that career was over. So, I changed sports about seven or eight years ago to boxing,” he says.
Born in London to a gynaecologist and a dentist, Osagie was destined for a career in medicine but he opted for crunching numbers instead. After completing his finance degree at Durham University in England, Osagie had a short stint as a salesman.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5320" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/InShot_20160902_133402-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" />
“My first job out of university was selling makeup door to door. That is the best way to integrate yourself into society. I used to walk around the city of London and sell Victoria Jackson makeup for £30 to £40. I was in the job for just a month and I quit. After that I went into advertising for an event company where we sold advertising and organized conferences all over the world,” he says.
Osagie was transferred to the Nigerian branch of the business two years ago, which inspired the start of his entrepreneurial journey.
“When I moved to Lagos, I realized that it didn’t have the things that I wanted to do. The whole entrepreneurial journey started because I needed to find a way to do things outside of going clubbing and going to the restaurant.”
At the time, Osagie had to drive far to get to his local gym. He decided to move his workout sessions closer to the where he lived and avoid the same mistake he made years ago by not following his passion.
“I am 29 years old. I was playing football from a young age to about 22. My biggest regret was that I never really took the gamble to quit my job and just go for trials and play for a team. I used to get a decent amount of money per match but I never had the courage to quit everything and pack one bag and relocate to another country to make it playing football, no matter what happened,” he says.
Osagie took the plunge. He quit his job and, with his life savings, began looking for a location for his new gym. He had a clear vision of what he wanted; it had to be safe, moderately priced and accessible. With an initial investment of $40,000, EliteBox was born.
“The long-term vision is to franchise this concept and make sure it also grows organically. I haven’t created this just to be another gym. There are very specific things about this gym that you will not find anywhere else, so, for me to keep that ambience, it has to grow organically.”
So far the gym has 100 members and the media attention is bringing in more members. Combining boxing and fitness is a hit with Osagie’s clients, but he wants to do more with his business.
“We are also looking to have boxing events and charity events. We work with a lot of kids at the moment and people come from the mainland to train; we are creating something here that is more than just a gym. We see ourselves as bridging the gap in the industry so we have the upper echelon in terms of clients and the working class as well. So we have a mix and match with males and females,” says Osagie.
If the feedback from Idrisu and Mark are anything to go by, then Osagie has found his calling. As the fitness craze gains popularity among Nigerians, EliteBox is punching its way to the top.

Punching His Way To The Top

On a rainy day in East London, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, boxing legend Vuyani Bungu is at the Downtown Boxing Gym. Always wearing a charismatic smile on his face, he looks around the walls covered with pictures of local boxing greats; he spots a photo of himself posing with his entourage, holding a trophy. Bungu looks long and hard and says “the good old days”.
The contrast is as bleak as this winter’s day. Bungu’s best day was 16 years ago on a spring day in London. Bright lights shone that night and over 10,000 Londoners were cheering, some jeering, inside the Olympia London. With all the pre-match hype, viewers were glued to their screens around the world. “Viva Bungu Viva!” praised traditional poet Zolani Mkiva, who had flown in from the Eastern Cape as Bungu entered the ring after a year and a half on the sidelines. Outside the ring, Londoners greeted him with hostility.
In the blink of an eye the atmosphere came to life; Londoners shouted “Naseem! Naseem!” as the defending champion ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed hovered over the crowd on a leopard-print magic carpet on wires. He was welcomed by Puff Daddy, as the hip hop artist was then known, as he landed ringside; that’s as cool as it gets. The bell rang, Bungu fought with his famous slouch stance connecting with infrequent punches that were no match for Hamed’s reflexes. A powerful left jab from Hamed sent Bungu to the canvas and referee Joe Cortez stopped the fight in the fourth round. Bungu’s eight-year unbeaten run was over.
“Naseem caught me, never in the history of my boxing career had I been knocked out and not known where I was,” says Bungu.
For Bungu the fight was a painful end to a painful dance with his promoter as he reached the peak of his career.
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“I sat for a year and a half not getting fights, you know promoters work in different ways, and then I got a chance to fight Paul Ingle for the IBF featherweight title in 2000,” he says.
While preparing for a fight with Ingle, his promoter Rodney Berman had negotiations with Hamed’s camp for a fight. Hamed’s representatives agreed, and replaced Ingle with their fighter.
“There was talk of fighting Naseem while I was still active, bear in mind in 2000 I was getting old and spent a year and a half not fighting. I got the fight; they fired my trainer and said he was drinking a lot,” says Bungu. “I knew very well the reason behind that but unfortunately I cannot dwell on it. I don’t want to go deep but it was not because he was drinking. Sometimes, these days, people sue you.”
Bungu says he wasn’t measured for the kit he wore for the Hamed fight. He kept quiet even as he couldn’t wear a protector because it didn’t fit his tight pants.
“That fight turned me off. I just went there because everything was already done,” says Bungu.
“Things went bad after the Naseem fight, you know when you come from a poor background like mine, in those particular years, I knew nothing about tax and the taxman caught me. I nearly lost everything. That’s when my marriage started to break. Tax caught me and took everything,” says Bungu.
Manager and trainer Mzimasi ‘Bra Mzi’ Mnguni had been with Bungu all his fighting life. He was at the iconic Sisa Dukashe stadium in Bungu’s hometown of Mdantsane when the boxer got his first professional fight and was nicknamed ‘The Beast’ by the crowd after they were reminded of the powerful punches of Ugandan John Mugabi who went by the same moniker.
With affection and respect, Bungu frequently refers to his mentor as ‘Bra Mzi’. However, Bungu was disappointed by Mnguni’s handling of his finances. Mnguni signed the deals while Bungu focused on his punches.
“When you don’t know something, and the people who are supposed to be telling you something are not willing to tell you, you feel like you are alone in a cage, they just leave you there. Though I don’t blame anyone, life goes on. I felt betrayed by them anyway,” says Bungu.
He never argued with the money that was put on his table after a fight. Bungu, with a record 13 IBF super bantamweight title defences, was never present during negotiations for a match. According to reports, he owed the taxman R900,000 ($67,000). Although he paid an accountant R20,000 ($1,500) to get him out of trouble, he was alone.
“People thought I was making millions, I never saw a million in my career. From my defences, if I can tell you I had R500,000 in my pocket I would be lying to you. That’s how boxing is, that’s the bad side of boxing.”
“After a fight, I would have R400,000, then deductions poured in, I was left with R200,000. Then you would hear sayings that there were no sponsors for a fight and all that, there were lot of excuses and I could not argue with them because it’s an area that I don’t know,” says Bungu.
Mnguni, however, says he always tried to get the best deal for Bungu.
“I paid [my fighters] according to the rates of South Africa, but once they got to international stages, I didn’t promote them. The only thing I did was negotiate on their behalf. I believe I tried to get the best for them,” says Mnguni.
In the gym, Bungu throws a few punches in the air and immediately catches his breath. Still wearing his charismatic smile, he gazes into the distance.
It all started in 1992 when stablemate and friend, Welcome Ncita, lost his IBF world title to American Kennedy McKinney and lost again in a rematch in 1994 in Texas. While in Texas, Ncita and Bungu, who was campaigning for fights abroad, were introduced to McKinney by their trainer. To Bungu’s astonishment, McKinney was helplessly drunk.
“I had a small prayer to myself and said, you know what God, we’re poor in South Africa, we can’t fall prey to someone who is wasting his talent, if one day I could get a chance to fight this guy, I would beat him,” recalls Bungu.
Four months later, Bungu received international recognition when he beat McKinney with a unanimous decision to win the international bantamweight title. The match was described by The Ring magazine as “the upset of the year”. Bungu received a call from South Africa’s newly-elected democratic president Nelson Mandela to mark the fact that he was the first boxing champion of a free South Africa.
“He wanted to see me, I couldn’t believe it. He said I am an asset of this country, that’s why I went on defending the title for this country 13 times,” says Bungu.
It all fell apart after the fight with Hamed in London. The next two years were spent without a fight, he divorced, and was in financial arrears; the beast was on its knees. Bungu’s last fight was in 2005 against Thomas Mashaba, in a tournament staged by Mnguni. He lost on points and decided it was a cue for him to bow out.
“I knew very well they were kicking me out of boxing, for me that was it. It was hard quitting because the people who you thought had your back weren’t on your side anymore. [My] manager and promoter just turned their back on me,” says Bungu.
Ncita was welcomed by scores of supporters in his hometown of East London when he became the first boxer from the Eastern Cape to win a world title. Ncita suffered the same treatment from his manager and promoter as Bungu.
“Their focus is to make as much money as they can and when your career is fading, they use someone else to make money. They don’t teach you to save it,” says Ncita
For Ncita, this all culminated before the McKinney fight.
“What happened there before the journey to that fight, it made me not be there psychologically. Physically I was ready for the fight, but psychologically I was not myself. I already took a decision before the fight, I told myself I am done with boxing,” says Ncita.
Mnguni says that Bungu and Ncita can only blame themselves for their financial difficulties.
“I used to say to both of them, if you were workers you would get this kind of money when you are 60 years old, but you guys get it at 25. I said they should give it to investors. To them it was like they should use it today, but it was for the next 40 years. To them it was like it is the end of the world.”
At some point, Ncita owned a Steers fast food franchise but financial difficulties forced him to sell after eight years.
In a quiet neighborhood in Rosebank, Johannesburg, Golden Gloves promoter Rodney Berman enjoys a strong cup of coffee in his office painted with boxing greats from Mdantsane, including Bungu and Ncita.
“In my 39-year boxing history, my two favorite fighters of all time are Welcome Ncita and Vuyani Bungu, not just because of their boxing ability but because of their humbleness,” says Berman.
With confidence, he states his partnership with Mnguni is the most successful in South Africa. He constantly gives credit to Mnguni for handling Bungu’s fight with Hamed. Berman says he never signed a written contract with Mnguni because their relationship is built on trust. He says had Bungu won the fight with Hamed, life would have been rosy for the boxer.
“Vuyani froze that night, if he had beaten Hamed he would have been the hottest property in world boxing,” says Berman.
He confirms the purse Bungu received after the fight was R2.5 million (around $190,000) and says he was convinced Bungu would have won the fight. Berman says he was never aware of the problems Bungu faced and he is unaware of the real reason his personal trainer Terry ‘Baba’ Stotts was fired.
“Nobody ever came to me and said ‘Rodney, I have these problems.’ I was never aware of anything,” says Berman.
“Vuyani was just a too nice a person, if you look at it logically he should have phoned me and said ‘Rodney I like Baba Stotts, this is the man I want to train me, I don’t want him fired’. Then it would have ended the whole story.”
Berman says he was aware of the financial difficulties Ncita and Bungu faced after they retired but refuses to believe Mnguni could steal money from his boxers.
“To bring up this stuff now against Mzi is a bit unfair, the right time to do it was when it was happening,” says Berman.
According to Berman, both boxers are using Mnguni as a scapegoat. He believes they blew their fortunes.
“I told them to invest their money and Welcome did it. Two minutes after Welcome invested, he came back and took it all out; they never tell you that side of the story.”
“Ask Vuyani how many times I begged him to let me help him invest his money,” says Berman
The estimated purse Bungu made from his title defences is R6 million (around $500,000) with all the necessary deductions.
Nothing is as hard as the road to the top. In 2012, Bungu and Ncita teamed up as promoters to assist emerging boxers from the Eastern Cape. Many saw this as a rivalry to their mentor Mnguni, and to add insult to injury, Berman is their ally.
Both Bungu and Ncita are based in East London trying to make the millions that slipped away. Bungu is a happily-married motivational speaker. He gives advice to the youngsters of Mdantsane as well as current boxers; cautioning them of the flaws he faced. Former IBF international bantamweight champion, and Mdantsane-born, Zolani Tete has embraced the advice given to him by the veterans.
“People like Vuyani used to say they don’t want what happened to them happen to us. He usually says what hit him the most was not paying tax. Today, before even receiving your cheque, you know you have to pay tax,” says Tete.
Both Hamed and McKinney have suffered the same straightened circumstances as the African boxers they fought. Hamed has doubled in weight since the fight in 2000 and is unrecognizable when he walks along the streets of London. He has also been in the news for the wrong reasons since his early retirement.
In 2006, Hamed was involved in a high-speed car crash that left the other motorist seriously injured, resulting in Hamed serving 16 weeks in jail and receiving a four-year driving ban. Meanwhile, McKinney is a boxing trainer in his hometown of Mississippi.
Sadly, Mnguni is ill after a car crash in November 2013 and a stroke in March 2014 that left him paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. His gymnasium, Eyethu, which produced many world champions, is struggling.
Life after the ring has been difficult for everyone.

‘I Knew Nothing About Tax And The Taxman Caught Me’

Colin Nathan is one of the few people who can say they are living the dream. As a successful boxing trainer, he wakes up every morning and looks forward to going to work.
He shares his beautiful house in Norwood, south of Johannesburg, with his wife Lara, his eight-year-old son Daniel and a new addition to the family, Jamie, who is only two months old.
After settling in at his home, we get straight to where it all began for the man some regard as presently the most successful trainer in the country.
“I was only seven years old when I started nagging my father to take me with him to the boxing gym,” he says.
Nathan brightens up and become passionate when he talks about his formative years in boxing while growing up in Cape Town. His father, Stan, was a cutman and worked with boxers like the Whiteboy brothers Chris and Derrick, Sydney Hoho and Bashew Sibaca.
At the Sea Point Boxing Club, the young Nathan fell in love with the hustle and bustle of the boxing gym. His favorite activity was using boxers’ stomachs as punching bag, and the pugilists were happy to let him as he was too small and skinny to hurt them. In 1988, while in the fourth grade at school, Nathan remembers yelling instructions at the sparring boxers, much to the amusement of everyone in the gym.
Noticing his growing passion for the sport, Stan started taking his son to work with him in the corners of his boxers. This was illegal and when noticed in 1990, Stan was forced to register him as a bucket boy. This makes Nathan the youngest bucket man in South African history.
Boxing  has always been a constant in Nathan’s life, especially as his mother, Helen, was a professional boxing judge, the first woman to hold the position in the country. Nathan’s early boxing career was not restricted to carrying the bucket. He was also given the role of wrapping boxers’ hands, a skill that even experienced trainers find difficult to master. Nathan says his most memorable family outings were going to boxing tournaments to watch epic fights like the national title bout between Nika Khumalo and Phumzile Madikane. He also never missed the boxing program Blow By Blow that was aired by the public broadcaster, SABC, on Sunday afternoons.
But boxing wasn’t Nathan’s only passion. At the age of 16, he received national colors in judo. He represented South Africa in several tournaments and was crowned national champion. Despite this, he never stopped his boxing activities. Nathan started holding mitts for boxers to hit and repaired cuts in the corner. He says this was a turning point and he quit judo as his responsibilities with the boxers mounted.
Nathan’s involvement in boxing deepened when he moved to Johannesburg in 1998 to double up as a television presenter on SABC. This led to him becoming the youngest boxing commentator in the country at 20 years of age. Another milestone was in 2000 when Nathan, at the age of 22, became the youngest South African to own a boxing gym – the Hot Box Gym in Glenhazel, a north-eastern suburb of Johannesburg.
After making a name for himself on television, boxers started approaching Nathan to be their manager. The first professional boxer in his stable was bantamweight, Andries Dick, who won his first five fights under Nathan. His second was Springkaan Khongoane who is still working with Nathan to this day. By this time, Nathan knew he wanted to become a fulltime trainer. Being relatively young, it was tough convincing the boxing fraternity that he was the real deal. Boxing authorities used to mistake him for a boxer during weigh-ins and he found it difficult to convince promoters to sign his fighters.
Around two years later, Khongoane became his first champion when he won the provincial super-bantamweight title. With his growing success, former national champions like Tshepo Lefele, Mpush Makambi and Malcolm Klassen started joining his ranks and it became more and more difficult for Nathan to keep his head above the turbulent waters. He decided to sign up with KO promotions and later with Branco Sports Productions, run by Branco Milenkovic. In 2005, he approached the biggest promoter in the country, Rodney Berman, who told Nathan he didn’t have any boxers he wanted to promote. Berman, however, had a change of heart the following year and signed up the young trainer in the Golden Gloves Promotions family. The rest is history.
“The last eight years have been nothing short of amazing,” says Nathan.
He has great respect for Berman, whom he says is one of his idols. Nathan rubbishes claims that the only reason Berman gave him a chance was because they are both Jewish. At one stage, people even said he was Berman’s nephew, especially when the promoter walked him down the aisle at his wedding.
Berman’s faith in Nathan has paid off. He has since produced world champions like Hekkie Budler, the IBO and WBA strawweight champion and the Ring Magazine’s No.1 ranked boxer in his division, and Zolani Marali, the former WBF junior-welterweight champion. He is also training the highly-rated Ryno Liebenberg who is undefeated in 16 fights.
To take his training to the next level, Nathan spent two weeks with Freddie Roach, considered by many to be the world’s greatest trainer, in his Wild Card gym in Los Angeles. So, what did Nathan learn from Manny Pacquiao’s famous trainer?
“Commitment and responsibility,” says Nathan.
He has also met and taken advice from other renowned trainers like Angelo Dundee, who worked with Muhammad Ali, and Teddy Atlas, who worked with Mike Tyson. But does he consider himself the best trainer in South Africa?
“In my eyes, yes, I think I am,” he says.
The latest success is Budler. The trainer considers Budler’s win over the dangerous Nkosinathi Joyi as his best achievement.
“Few gave light-hitting Hekkie a chance against the hard-hitting Joyi. But people didn’t know that I briefly worked with Joyi in my gym and I knew his weak points,” he says.
His biggest disappointment was when Budler lost his IBO light flyweight title, his only professional loss, by a split decision to Gideon Buthelezi.
Colin Nathan says he was the first in the country to open his gym to commercial clients. He boasts training celebrities like musician Danny K, sport presenter Carol Tshabalala and President Jacob Zuma’s son, Duduzane.
Although he now is well known in the country, Nathan has his wife and kids to ground him whenever he gets big-headed. To prove the point, he asks his wife who the best boxing trainer in the country is. With a mischievous smile on her face, Lara says “Nick Durandt?”

Tag: gym

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