Deon Potgieter Boxing
Underrated due to his quiet, demure manner, Cassius “Mister Shy Guy” Baloyi, the current World Boxing Union (WBU) featherweight champion, is looking to break into the big league. An impressive defence against the tough Nigerian-born title challenger Said Lawal in London on Friday night (April 2) could be just the ticket for him.
Baloyi, also a former WBU junior featherweight world champion, is undefeated at present with 20 wins, nine coming inside the distance. He won his first world title in only his 14th professional fight and defended it successfully three times before moving up to the featherweight ranks.
Inspired by Vuyani Bungu’s record-breaking 13 world title defences earlier this year, Baloyi said: “I also want to defend my title 13 times.”
“Cassius is ready to move up a notch,” says Rodney Berman of Golden Gloves, who are promoting the bout – the first event to be staged by the company in Britain. “We want to match him with Kennedy McKinney in the near future.”
McKinney is no stranger to South Africans. The American won the International Boxing Federation junior featherweight title by knocking out Welcome Ncita and then subsequently lost it a few bouts later to Vuyani Bungu. Just as Bungu is now campaigning as a featherweight, so too is McKinney.
The plus for Baloyi fighting the likes of McKinney is that the former world champion, who was also an Olympic gold medallist, has a perennial popularity in the United States.
A victory over the veteran could bolster Baloyi’s popularity in a country which still determines who gets the big-money fights. Being an undefeated, two-time WBU world champion just isn’t enough, not until you’ve beaten a fighter who commands universal acclaim – or American acclaim – as being a top fighter.
(WBU heavyweight world champion Corrie Sanders should take note. To get his dream fight against Lennox Lewis, he will first have to beat someone of merit. In the modern boxing world recognition doesn’t come with winning a world title, but with who you’ve beaten.)
For a McKinney fight to be realised, however, Baloyi will first have to get past Lawal. It shouldn’t be too tough a task for the champion, who is a fleet-footed stylist with an incisive jab and a jolting right uppercut.
The Nigerian, who now resides in Europe, has a record of 20 wins, four losses and three draws, and has a rather auspicious claim to fame. He has previously been in the ring with the World Boxing Organisation’s featherweight kingpin Naseem Hamed. If you can call it that. The fight ended in 36 seconds of the first round.
“That’s no disgrace,” says Berman, “Hamed has run roughshod over most top fight opposition.” Lawal’s loss to Hamed came in March 1996 and since then he has built up a reputation of being a tough fighter with a big punch.
“Baloyi is a clever champion,” says former three time world champion Thulani “Sugarboy” Malinga. “They say this guy [Lawal] can hit, but Cassius will outbox him.”
Although these two fighters from Africa will be contesting a world title in England, neither of them are ranked in the top 10 of the official all-Africa ratings. “You can’t go by the ratings,” says Golden Gloves publicist Terry Petiffer. “They’re often compiled by one person and they can be subjective.”
Malinga concurred with Pettifer’s view: “Ratings aren’t important. It’s not about ratings, it’s about a man doing his job. You can see how good a man is by the way he does his job.”
Malinga adds: “They don’t rate him high, but Cassius is the best.”