DEON POTGIETER, Johannesburg | Wednesday 6.00pm.
TWO of South Africa’s finest boxers have been offered big pay-day bouts. Following the impressive first defence of his International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior featherweight world title on September 25, Ledwaba has been approached to unify his title with that of World Boxing Organisation (WBO) junior featherweight kingpin Marco Barrera’s.
“It will be a massive unification and will require a huge amount of money to stage,” says Rodney Berman, Ledwaba’s promoter who was contacted by British promoter Frank Warren to arrange the bout “but it’s very viable and we’ll be looking to set it up for early next year.”
An even bigger bout for which the contracts are already being drawn up, is one between our IBF mini flyweight world champion Zolani Petelo and the IBF junior flyweight champ, Ricardo Lopez. The fight is scheduled for March 2000.
“Petelo is ready to move up in weight and a victory over Lopez, who is regarded as pound for pound one of the best boxers in the world, would launch him (Petelo) into International superstar status.” says fight analyst Terry Pettifer.
In other boxing news the heavyweight showdown between World Boxing Union heavyweight champion Corrie Sanders and Francois Botha is in danger of falling through. Botha has approached British promoter Frank Warren in an attempt to negotiate a better deal than the two million rand he’s already been offered to fight Sanders.