Gavin Evans Boxing
The idea of girding his ancient loins to beat up over-hyped young Englishmen is one that has long given pleasure to Benoni’s toughest, wiliest and prettiest granddad.
The 42-year-old Thulane “Sugarboy” Malinga (he finds no offence in the boy bit) is seen as a bit of a fluke on this island, despite his two emphatic WBC world title victories over the big money locals Nigel Benn and Robin Reid. So once again he is said to be heading for the knackers yard when he meets local hero Richie Woodhall in Telford on Friday night.
This time the man in the other corner is a British boxer of the tall, erect, white-skinned variety – lots of elegant footwork, neat parrying and nifty straight lefts. Woodhall can box all right – a former Olympic bronze medalist (he had the misfortune of running into Roy Jones in Seoul) – he went on to establish himself as the best middleweight in Britain, Europe and the Commonwealth.
But two misfortunes held him back: hand troubles and the decline of his promoter, Mickey Duff. For a couple of years he was frozen out by the international control bodies who were beholden to Don King and his minions. When his title shot finally arrived, he was recovering from micro surgery on his elbow and had been out of action for a year. As a result, the below-par Woodhall was stopped in the 12th round by America’s Keith Holmes after a typically brave showing – his only setback in 22 outings.
In the 16 months since then, he has revived his fortunes as a super middleweight under the aegis of Britain’s premier promoter, Frank Warren, who also part-owns Malinga. The reconstruction of his elbow has forced him to adapt his style by using his left hook more, and generally by becoming more aggressive. Warren’s big idea is for the popular Woodhall (who doubles as a Sky television caster) to relieve the inconvenient Malinga of his WBC crown, so that he can set up a local derby featuring Woodhall against his rising “superstar”, the Welshman Joe Calzaghe.
Malinga, typically, chuckles at all this gung-ho British confidence. “I’ve seen tapes of two of his fights, and his style seems made to suit me. He’s a boxer, a mover and he can run, but I’ve been sparring with Dingaan Thobela who is far quicker, and I’ve had no trouble catching him. I’m prepared for anything Woodhall can come up with, and from the first minute of the first round I’m going to be on to him, and by the fifth round something will happen to him.”
Malinga also relishes the idea of upsetting Warren’s plans once again, as well as those of the English promoter’s former partner and current enemy, Don King. Immediately after Malinga beat Reid, the WBC (which operates as King’s handmaiden) waved its rules to insist that Malinga make an immediate mandatory defence against the King-owned Italian, Vincenzo Nardiello.
Nearly two years ago Nardiello won a dubious decision over Malinga to lift the WBC title, before losing it to Reid. King obviously figured he could do it again, but the WBC backed off on their plans to force the issue when Warren threatened legal action. So, instead, the Malinga-Woodhall winner will fight Nardiello in July – a prospect which pleases Malinga.
“I was quite happy to fight Nardiello immediately, but Warren didn’t want it and managed to change the dates by making excuses about me hurting my hand in training, which never happened. I boxed terribly against Nardiello last time, but there’s no way he beat me, so I want revenge. After that I will unify the title and Warren can bring on any boxer he thinks can beat me, including Calzaghe, and I’ll show him once again.”
Malinga insists that the political explosion in his camp which prompted him to fire his mullett-topped manager-trainer Nick Durandt, has had no effect on his training. What happened was that a rival group of promoters illegally bugged Durandt’s phone, recording him using words like “kaffir”, “yid” and “coolie”, along with racist sentiments which go with these terms. The tape was later broadcast on SABC TV.
“After the Reid fight there was a lot of pressure on me to get rid of him,” said Malinga. “He made no apology, which is what he should have done, so it made me wonder whether these were his true sentiments. In the end I had no option but to drop him. He was very upset, but what he didn’t seem to realise was that he had done a terrible thing.”
He is now trained by his old friend and assistant trainer, Elias Tshabalala. “We’ve been together for over six years and, in fact, although Nick was the front man, it was really Elias who was doing most of the work, so nothing has really changed.
Despite his age and the bookie’s odds, my fond prediction is that Malinga will prevail once again. Woodhall’s upright English style (not to mention his papery English skin and fragile hands), seem made for an unorthodox, elusive spoiler like Malinga. I can picture the Benoni man dropping his left to his side and then bringing it up to Woodhall’s brows to start the blood flowing, and then banging home his right-cross from odd angles. Woodhall is a gutsy campaigner and will make him work for it, but when it’s all over, Malinga should still be champion.
ENDS