South Africans have long since had a strong affinity for the sport and art of boxing.
It's all about the blinding left jab or the power of thunderous right hook.
They love the rhythm this sport requires and the calculated fury that drives a boxer as they prepare for a match not to mention the theatrics involved in fiery weigh in sessions or the back and forth of smack talk as a lead up.
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Some of the most beloved South Africans gained this hounour in between the ropes of a ring but the sport has lost traction over the years. Fewer fights are televised, and our local champions are not as celebrated as they were once.
This has sparked Squire Arnold Nododile to host a boxing event in Mpumalanga that was at first shrouded in uncertainty with some sponsors denying this event was real and Khanyi Mbau-who was slated to partake in the celebrity exhibition match-denying that she was going to be part of it and later being replaced.
Women to rise in boxing
“I have been in boxing for three years now, this is my first time as a promoter. I worked for another promotions company before this. With this 2023 licensing year I decided to apply for my own license,” says the passionate Squire.
The initiative is called The Rise of Women in Boxing, and it is being rolled out nationally by the National Boxing Association of South Africa and the Department of Sports and Recreation.
When it comes to women in boxing in South Africa there aren’t enough ranking and competing fighters. That’s why you will have fights that happen many times as is the case between Sharadene Fortuin and Melissa Miller and so the title bounces between the two of them as they don’t have anyone else to contend with.
“The reason behind this event is that there's a big problem when it comes to women in boxing in South Africa. There aren't enough qualified fighters to compete professionally in the sport and this results in for example you have a fight that has happened many times between Sheridine Fontaine and Melissa Miller, for the South African belt.
“There's a huge shortage when it comes to women in boxing. Boxing South Africa (BSA) decided to create a program whereby they would encourage more participation of women in professional boxing around the country. It became a national rollout and has already happened in Limpopo, the Northwest, Durban, and ours is series number five.”
There are plans for four more of these events throughout the remaining provinces.
Squire just so happens to be the only licensed boxing promoter in the province of Mpumalanga, "by default, this mandate automatically falls on my shoulders to make sure that the Mpumalanga leg of the rollout is a successful one,” he explains.
How the event is structured involves three amateur fights from the South African National Boxing Organization, who are the amateur body of boxing. The reason is to start harvesting talents from amateur level and youth stages, “then they groom them until they qualify to be professional and registered under Boxing South Africa, which is the professional boxing body.”
“In the year of 2022, we had three professional registered boxers in the province and in 2023 we have zero professionals, and this is an intricate lack of support.”
He says the issues lie around there not being budget from government or private sector to aid boxers who then end up either not renewing their licenses which comes at a cost that happens every year or they just go to other provinces to look for opportunities and they leave Mpumalanga.
“Renewal costs money every year, they must pay to renew and boxers unlike any other sporting code, only get paid when they get fights. If they don't get a fight, they don't make an income. It's unlike soccer where they'll get a salary or wage or whatever. When they don't have a fight, they don't make money. If the boxer doesn't fight all year, the boxer does not have income all year, and they cannot feed their families or sustain themselves.
“To have to register every year and pay money while you're not getting any fights discourages them. Then we end up losing a lot of talented people and the lack of opportunities causes a decline for us.”
His organization partnered up with the South African National Amateur Boxing Organisation as the amateur leagues, have a lot of women boxers from Mpumalanga.
“We are going to start the tournament by displaying the talent from the amateur and when I say amateur, please be aware, the amateur leagues are the ones who compete in the Olympics, so it is not amateur in the sense of the word. They are actually very good boxers that can compete internationally and then amateur feeds into professional boxing.”
This event will consist of three bouts which are all six rounds with women from different provinces competing against females from different African countries.
“We've got a fight with an opponent from Malawi and two opponents from Zimbabwe in the six rounders. There will be three fights that will build up to the two main titles. In the main titles, we've got the World Boxing Association which is an international title, and it's the Pan-African Phantom weight title between the current South African champion, Mapule Ngubane, who will be competing with, Charity Mukami Mujwiri from Kenya.
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“We had a zoom engagement with them the other day and they were actually interacting over Zoom and promising each other,” he chuckles.
On the card will also be the South African champion Matshidiso Mokebisi from Free State who will be defending the title again against Monalisa Takane from the Eastern Cape.
“Now this is a rematch. This fight happened last year October in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape and it resulted in a draw and both teams were unhappy. Matshidiso's team, the champions team, even wrote an appeal to the national boxing regular to challenge the results to say we are not happy, it's not a draw, we won. While the other camp is also saying the same thing, saying no, we won, there's no way, this thing is a draw.”
Squire promises this fight will be a highlight of the festivities.
Using drawcards as the undercard
For the ordinary public, who perhaps don’t follow boxing as closely as avid fans and since the sport is not as publicized as it once was, organisers needed a hook to get people to come to the arena and enjoy this spectacle. Enter the star powers of actor Manaka Ranaka and socialite Zodwa Wabantu.
“South Africans do not know their champions. Unlike when we were growing up, we knew our Baby Jake Matlala’s, Dingan Thobela and our Big John Tates, the champions of the time. But now, South Africans don't know Thato 'Captain Charisma' Bonokoane, who was a whole world champion from South Africa they don't know Ronald ‘The King’ Malindi who passed away last week who had 19 fights zero losses, zero draws, and he was undefeated and died a champion.”
To entice ordinary entertainment lovers Squire decided to stage a celebrity exhibition fight.
“That's the thinking behind it, to say, in order to entice people and invite them into the world of boxing-because boxing is different when you watch it on TV is not the same as when you are in the arena- to have a celebrity exhibition fight to invite people into the arena and have them experience boxing so while the celebrities friends are there to see their celebrities going at each other they also get the opportunity to experience the real boxing, the professional boxing and I promise you once they experience that they fall in love with it.”
He says each of the drawcards are training on their own, with their own trainers and teams. This falls to them as it would with professional fighters. We first saw this craze with Cassper Nyovest and his series of boxing matches which raised concerns around the safety of untrained individuals slugging it out in the ring with very little protection.
“We have guidelines of how to go about it in such a way that it doesn't result in serious injuries and people getting hospitalized and things like that. They are being professionally guided for the sake of safety. So, they're not just going wild on their own they are being taught the rules and techniques because boxing is very professional.
“It’s very skill based. It's not like a street fight where you can just do anything and pull each other's dresses and bite and do all those things. It is very regulated and it's very skilled based on so those skills are being transferred to them so that they can handle it in a professional manner and not end up harming each other badly.”
The night will also involve some light musical entertainment as a break from the boxing with GP Gangster from Soweto billed to take to the ring. The celebrity fight will be three rounds and should provide some entertaining moments.
It may seem odd that these two personalities got involved in this, but the overarching theme is the empowerment of women which both Manaka and Zodwa could easily get behind.
“People should get their tickets. This is the first ever female celebrity boxing exhibition in Africa. This one is for the history books.”
The event takes place on 22 October at The Ridge Casino, Emalahleni, Mpumalanga.
