BOXING: Gavin Evans
THE first and last time Sugarboy Malinga and Vincenzo Nardinello met it was all hugs, kisses and fun and games in foreign accents.
Fun’n’games, in fact, is one of the things this Italian enjoys most about the fight game, even when he is on the wrong side of a beating, as he was in London after being stopped in eight rounds by Nigel Benn in his maiden attempt at the WBC world super middleweight title last July.
He laughed and clowned his way through that outing and after the post-fight press conference — in which he blamed his demise on wearing the wrong soles on a slippery canvass — he bounded up to Malinga, threw his arms around him, kissed both his cheeks, and then told him what to expect from the “Dark Destroyer”.
“Heez-a-nuttin,” Nardinello announced with a huge grin, presumably with no conception that a year later he and Malinga would be meeting in less amiable circumstances. “He notta so strong. Heeza eezee to catcha. He don’ta even heeta that hard. You canna beeta him Shugah.” And so on.
Malinga, who has the best smile in the business, naturally agreed, and nine months later went out and did the business. To the astonishment of just about everyone in this game he had lifted the “world” title in his fourth attempt at the age of 36, by dishing out a sound thrashing to one of the biggest names in world boxing.
The new champion returned home with his blonde, Mullett-topped fanagalo-speaking manager-trainer, Nick Durant, to what passed as a hero’s welcome, receiving the full treatment from Nelson Mandela and being featured in the self-proclaimed American “Bible of Boxing”, Ring magazine, among others.
Until then Thulane had always seemed to be one of those fellows for whom destiny always had a way of obstructing talent and ambition. A bright pupil from a dirt-poor Ladysmith family, he had to abandon his ambitions to become a doctor when he was orphaned as a child , and instead gave up school to sell furniture, while developing his reputation as a formidable street fighter.
He tried karate, switched to boxing and excelled, but as a professional he kept on getting robbed by the judges. Either that or he would “choke” on the big occasion. And nothing else seemed to go to plan either. When he finally built his own house in Ladysmith, it was promptly destroyed by a flood.
This lapsed Presbyterian became a “born again” Christian, but, like Job, he still had a few tests to pass. He bought a new house in Benoni but was falling behind on the bond repayments. He had a wife and four children, aged between 10 and 17, to support, and the money wasn’t coming in. His boxing career was drawing to a close, his alternative employment as a model wasn’t delivering and that killer smile was developing a lugubrious edge.
Then his youngest son collapsed and nearly died after being operated on for a brain tumour and Sugarboy did not have the money to pay for his medication. So he prayed and prayed and thought he heard God telling him he would deliver Nigel Benn’s head on a plate in the fifth round, or words to that effect, but instead found his own head on the canvass at that point. This time, however, he rose and, with the greatest of ease, triumphed.
A battered Benn tearfully announced his retirement, using the moment to propose to his woman, before changing his mind on the first score the next morning. On Saturday night in Manchester he challenges Ireland’s Steve Collins for the low-rent WBO version of the world title, and the winner will face Malinga, provided Sugarboy gets the unpredictable Italian on the same bill.
Since his first happy meeting with Malinga, Nardiello has regained his reputation as a legitimate fringe contender. After a couple of inside-the-distance wins, he took on Henry Wharton, the mandatory contender for Malinga’s title, and astounded the Yorkshireman by knocking him down for the first time in his career.
Finally, in the sixth round, Wharton opened a severe cut above the eye (Nardinello says it was with a policeman’s nod) and the fight was stopped, but it showed that the Italian was no patsy.
He is nearly six years younger than Sugarboy, but with a record of 28 wins (16 knockouts) in 33 bouts, including two world title shots and two spells as European champion, he is not lacking in top level experience . He is a southpaw with a decent but by no means devastating punch.
Like the Malinga of old, he thrives on clowning in the ring, and is sometimes short of ambition. But if he is “up” for this fight, as he was against Wharton in January, he could make it a difficult evening.
For Malinga to cash in on his title, it is important that he puts on a convincing display, and of course, imperative that he wins. A title unification bout with the Benn-Collins winner would earn Sugarboy the kind of money that would allow him to retire to carry out his ambition to become a full-time preacher man.
My tentative prediction is that both Malinga and Collins will win on points.