/ 4 May 2000

DURAN JNR REPLACES SISTER FOR PRO DEBUT

IRICHELLE Duran, daughter of the legendary Roberto Duran, will not make her professional boxing debut in South Africa as hoped. Instead, her brother, Roberto Duran junior will make his debut at the Carnival City Triple world title bill on May 24. Duran junior, who like his sister has signed a promotional deal with Golden Gloves, will meet junior middleweight Banda Mathebula in the opening fight of the tournament. Irichelle Duran will make her eagerly anticipated debut in London on June 2. She is to be a main feature on the Zolani Petelo – Mickey Cantwell IBF Straw-weight world title bout. Miss Duran expressed her regret over the location shift as she was looking forward to returning to South Africa, having briefly visited the country in February. The move of her debut was necessitated due to the fact that women’s boxing is still illegal in South Africa, even though the wheels to change this have been in motion for some time. Rodney Berman of Golden Gloves said that they were very excited at signing Duran junior and that there will be a lot of International attention focused on his first fight. Duran senior is scheduled to fight in June, which will make him one of only two boxers to have fought professionally over five decades.