Jan Bergman believes he is the best boxer in South Africa. This weekend he has a chance to prove his boast correct
BOXING: Gavin Evans
THERE’S a kind of prickly arrogance about Jan Bergman which comes across as alternatively endearing or plain irritating, depending on your vantage point. He’s a man who “knows” he’s the best boxer in South Africa, and even though he doesn’t yet have much to show for it in terms of the baubles this game dishes out, he demands to be treated accordingly.
Others among the country’s fighting elite, like Vuyani Bungu, Mbulelo Butile and Philip Holiday, who could make similar claims and have the titles to illustrate the point, are the picture of understated modesty, but Bergman comes from a different tradition.
If he upsets the 7:1 odds and lifts the IBF junior welter crown from the brush-cut head of the brilliant, unbeaten, Aussie-based Russian, Kostya Tszyu, in Newcastle, Australia, on Saturday, there will be no end to expressions of his renowned pride and recalcitrance, so it’s worth knowing the roots of the condition.
Growing up in the toughest corner of the coloured township of Toekomsrus, Bergman was raised to show absolute loyalty to his “own”, to protect fiercely everything he’d achieved, and to be wary of those who might want to take it away. He grew up in a family which was an island of stability in a little world ruled by gangsters, corrupt cops, drugs, alcoholism and deprivation and it was in this environment that he learnt to survive, thrive and protect. He was pretty, bright, did well at school and sport, and most of all he could fight like a cornered alley cat when the occasion demanded, as it so often did.
“My mummy was a factory worker and my father worked on the mines, so they were away the whole day. I was the oldest of six children, and I had to look out for the others. The section we grew up in was very, very rough in those days – there were lots of gangs – so when I was nine I joined Bokkie Martin’s Eagle Boxing Club to keep out of trouble, but there were fights all the time in the streets and I couldn’t avoid them. You fight different in the street – no rules – you use your head, your feet, your knees, but the boxing training helps ’cause you learn to avoid punches, to get in quickly, get out quickly and finish them off. I had plenty of street fights and I never lost one.”
Of course, winning a street fight doesn’t come with a referee raising your hand; it tends to involve beating the other fellow senseless before giving him a few turns with the boot, just to make sure. Most boxers come from comparable backgrounds, but with Bergman you sense an element of this adversarial approach and desire for closure have been taken into life more generally. To his credit though, throughout his career he has shown a stolid refusal to pucker up for anyone, and from the start made it clear that whatever his apartheid classification, he was black and proud.
Four years ago, when officials from the old government Boxing Board robbed his Toekomsrus homeboy, Aladin Stevens, of his national lightweight crown, and then diddled him out of a return with the favoured Danny Myburgh, Bergman had no compunction about giving an emphatic verbal finger to them, before putting in his own challenge. The all- powerful board ignored him, so he stepped up in weight and whipped Myburgh’s stablemate, Aaron Kabi, for the national light welterweight crown.
Later, when his first promoters, Gerrie Coetzee and Rhoan Gardiner, failed to deliver on their promises, he haughtily walked out, and moved over to their sworn rival Rodney Berman. Soon after, one of Bergman’s “international” opponents dropped out of a Berman bill, and he refused to fight a last-minute local substitute. He said he’d rather not be paid than face the indignity of squaring up to an unknown South African.
By that stage Bergman was already a brilliant fighter, but he had never received anything approaching professional-level training. Bokkie Martin was not up to the job but, contrary to everyone’s advice, the fiercely loyal boxer insisted he was part of the package. So both the fighter and his long-time trainer, as well as Bergman’s wife and former high school sweetheart, Prudence, and their young son Evander (named after former world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield), were relocated to Las Vegas. A second son, Jameel, was born there soon after.
An elite United States trainer, Kenny Adams, was retained and Bergman began to make the necessary adjustments. The arc of his devastating left hook was tightened, his stance was shifted to make him less open, his workrate was increased and he was taught to make openings, rather than wait for them. “My style has changed since I arrived here,” he acknowledges. “I’ve become more aggressive. I stay very busy, I don’t counter-punch as much, and I don’t expect a knockout with every punch. I set up my punches, so I’m more dangerous. I’m also much smarter now, my jab has improved no end, and I’m fitter and stronger than I’ve ever been before.” It’s been several years since his promoters first talked about imminent world title shots. Last year he became the mandatory contender for Julio Cesar Chavez’s WBC title, but when Bergman’s people challenged the fading Mexican, the WBC dropped Bergman for a less threatening contender and then removed him from their rating altogether.
Soon after, the IBF stripped Tszyu of his IBF title when he refused to fight Hugo Pineda in Columbia, and Bergman and Pineda were set to contest the vacant crown. But Tszyu took legal action and won and Bergman had to wait yet another year to get his chance. On Saturday afternoon he finally gets his chance to show his stuff, but most international “experts” believe the result is inevitable: Tszyu on a knockout.
They reason the Sydney-based Siberian was one of the finest amateurs in history, winning a world title and losing only three of 272 fights, and that his performances in the professional arena have been even more impressive. After only four months he started whipping a series of former world professional champions and it was not long before he was pounding the daylights out of Jake Rodriguez to lift the world title himself.
He’s an immensely powerful, extremely accurate puncher who never lets an opponent off the hook when he has him going. Add to that his quick reflexes, conditioning and his solid chin, and the picture does not seem too encouraging for the South African. But as Bergman points out, the man is not without his flaws. Like most European-trained amateurs, he stands too erect. He does not move quickly around the ring and takes too many punches.
“I know everybody overseas thinks I’ve only got a tiny chance against Tszyu, but I know that fate will carry me through,” says Bergman. “I’ll work him with my jab. He’ll be looking out for the left and left hook, but I will counter him with the right. He likes to go all out in the early rounds, but that’s exactly what I want. I will pick him off and prove to him that a good boxer can beat a good brawler. You can tell my people at home that they don’t need to worry because I’m going to be smart in there, and at the end of the fight I will be crowned world champion.”
Tszyu is stronger, more durable and probably has the better chin. Bergman is taller, faster, more fluid and may have the bigger concussive punch. I share Bergman’s view that he’s the best boxer in South Africa today, and I like to think that’s good enough to beat one of the 10 best fighters in the world. Bergman on points. (But maybe that’s just wishful thinking.)
Kosta Tszyu
Base: Sydney, Australia
Born: Serov, Siberia, USSR (Russia), September 19 1969
Age: 27 next Friday
Height: 1,685m
Weight: 63.5kg at weigh-in; 66.5kg by fight time
Amateur record: 269:3 – 1986 European junior gold medal; 1989 and 1991 European senior gold medalist; 1989 world championships bronze medal; 1991 world championships gold medal
Professional record: 17:0 (13). IBF world light welterweight champion since January 1995
Strengths: Accuracy, heavy puncher, strength, aggression, reflexes, adaptability, patience, chin, stamina
Weaknesses: Too upright, still learning to cope with tricky movers, defence
Jan Piet Bergman
Base: Las Vegas, USA
Born: Toekomsrus, Transvaal (Gauteng), May 19 1970
Age: 26 years, 4 months
Height: 1,745m
Weight: 63,5kg at weigh-in; 65kg by fight time
Amateur record: 67:5 South African “coloured” lightweight champion
Professional record: 32.0 (24). Former Transvaal lightweight champion, South African and WBC “International” light welterweight champion
Strengths: Speed, punching power (particularly left hook), jab, defence, reflexes
Weaknesses: Inexperience at elite level, chin untested, hot-headed
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