Deon Potgieter BOXING
Charles Mailula’s attempt at becoming South Africa’s fourth successive boxer in recent times to win a junior featherweight world title has been postponed due to an administrative problem.
“There was a problem in getting his United States visa in time,” says publicist Terry Pettifer. Mailula was to have challenged Carlos Contreras for the World Boxing Union version of the title this Saturday.
“The fight’s been put back two weeks, but will definitely still take place,” says Pettifer. The Mailula camp is obviously frustrated at the delay, but these things happen.”
Contreras is odds-on favourite to beat Mailula when they clash in Texas on July 22. The Mexican has scored 10 knockouts in 14 wins and is known as a big puncher.
Mailula himself is no slouch, however, when it comes to punching power. He illustrated this in dynamic fashion when he dropped Zolile Zono to win the national junior featherweight title last year.
He has since relinquished the title to concentrate on his international career.
It’s a worrying factor that visa problems could be experienced in a build up to a world title fight, given that this bout has been on the cards for quite some time.
Similar problems were experienced by Philip Ndou earlier this year, when he went to the US to fight on the Lennox Lewis-Michael Grant undercard.