Deon Potgieter Boxing
The soft-spoken Naas Scheepers will be laying it all on the line when he climbs into the ring against national welterweight champion Peter Malinga at the Carousel next Thursday night.
Malinga, a former World Boxing Union welterweight world champion, is moving up the ranks after his sensational first-round dismissal of former world champion Garry Murray late last year, and is looking for a crack at another world title.
A win over the highly rated Scheepers, who has narrowly missed clinching the world title on two occasions (losing split decisions to George Scott and Shea Neary), would elevate Malinga’s standing and almost certainly put a world title shot within his reach.
The champion boasts a rocket-powered right hand which has ended 16 of his 23 victories inside the distance and will be looking to send Scheepers the same route. Scheepers, in the other corner, boasts a toughness and tenacity seldom seen in the South African ring since the days of former world heavyweight contender Pierre Coetzer.
Known as a more versatile boxer/puncher than the hard-hitting champion, Scheepers desperately needs a win to get his career back on track. Coming off two consecutive losses he cannot afford a third.
“Peter has the formula for southpaws,” said Norman Hlabane, Malinga’s trainer/manager. “He’s had three national title defences. All against southpaws and he’s knocked them all out. Scheepers will be the fourth.”
“Don’t write him off,” said Harold Volbrecht, Scheepers’s trainer/manager in his fighters defence. “After seeing how Gary Murray shook up Malinga, I’m convinced that Naas will stop him inside eight rounds.”
Dingaan Thobela, also a former world champion now campaigning in the welterweight division, had this to say: “Malinga must be the favourite to win, but a boxer can always have an off day. Like Scheepers when he lost to Bergman. Scheepers is the kind of fighter that is always dangerous and could always cause an upset.”
This fight has all the ingredients to be a battle of attrition. The champion, one of the hardest-hitting welterweights since the days of Harold “The Hammer” Volbrecht, is up against a challenger with a granite-like jaw, who is no slouch when it comes to dropping his opponents. He has scored 12 knockouts in 24 victories.
If Scheepers can shake off the passiveness he displayed in his last two outings and go for the kill, there will be plenty of fireworks exploding at the Carousel.
Meanwhile, the national lightweight title is up for grabs this Sunday in Durban as One Boy Makwelo challenges Enoch Zita. The Champion became the first fighter from KwaZulu-Natal to win a national title in 14 years, when he stopped Simphiwe Joni in five rounds for the vacant title on October 11 last year.
Nicknamed “The Kangaroo” because of his unorthodox style, Zita is expected to retain his title via the short route.
ENDS