South Africa’s favourite boxer, Jacob Matlala, has his final professional fight this weekend
Gavin Evans
For 22 years Jacob Matlala has been a feature of the professional boxing world and for the past decade an institution in South African public life, but now, at last, the fighting side is drawing to an end.
The world’s shortest boxer steps into the ring for the 67th and final fight of his over-achieving career a “benefit” night at Carnival City, near Johannesburg on Saturday against a none-too-threatening Columbian called Juan Juanito Herrera. At the age of 40 years and two months the 1,47m (4’10”) “Baby Jake” has finally decided to move on.
Jake boasts of being the “second most famous face in South Africa” (after Nelson Mandela) and certainly no other South African sportsman has come close to achieving his crossover appeal to both the black and white markets.
His background was hardly typical of a fighting man a much-loved only child of a driver and a canteen cook, who sold fruit and vegetables on the side. “They looked after their money so we had enough to get by,” he said. “We were a very stable family and we certainly always had food on the table. I never thought of us as poor.”
He was top of his class at school and went on to graduate with a business diploma at Wits University and then a BCom degree at the University of South Africa, and he insists he never had a fight outside of the ring “they all seemed to like me so much”.
He took to the game, “just for fun”, claiming 199 wins in 200 amateur fights before turning professional in January 1980, under his amateur coach, Theo Mthembu, who still trains him today.
Jake settled into a lifestyle he has maintained six days a week ever since: up at 5.30am for an 8km run, two hours a day in the gym, never smoking or drinking, always leaving parties early.
He won his first pro fight on points at the age of 18, then waited 16 months to lose his second.
With his size, flashing smile and swarming style Jake achieved the kind of local name recognition other little boxers could only dream of, but it took a while to gell.
In 1991 promoter Mike Segal gave him one of those take-it-or-leave-it offers. Ireland’s Dave McAuley needed a last-minute opponent for his fifth defence of his International Boxing Federation flyweight title in Belfast. It meant leaving South Africa for his first time and moving up a weight division to take on a fighter with advantages of 23cm in height, 25cm in reach and a significant weight edge. Matlala was knocked out in the 10th round.
Still, he said, it was a learning experience. He drew even deeper on his Promethean work ethic and the transition was remarkable. He went to Glasgow in 1993 to challenge for the World Boxing Organisation flyweight title against local favourite Pat Clinton and delivered a brutally one-sided battering. Clinton went down four times and remained on the canvas for five minutes to give Matlala the first of his world titles.
In order to fight the superstar of the little men, Michael Carbajal, in 1997, Matlala left Segal, and cut a deal with rival promoter, Rodney Berman.
The South African shifted into top gear 10 seconds after the first bell and drowned lllthe American in punches. Never before had one man thrown so much leather and after firing 1 115 punches Jake had pulled it off. “Carbajal is tough, sure,” he said as he left the ring, “but I’m a tough kid from Soweto.”
Every six months or so for the next few years Berman would give Jake another celebrity turn but his serious interest had shifted to his burgeoning business empire. There was Baby Jake’s Diner a fast food chain and a range of Baby Jake products, from soft drinks to sports equipment, with a bit on the side on the motivational speech circuit. As a two-son family man who married his gospel singing childhood sweetheart and remained with her ever since, he was considered the ideal person to promote safe sex. People liked him and believed him.
But a serious hiccup to all this goodwill came in 1998 when he slept with young singer Julia Mnyamezeli. Allegations of rape and blackmail were bandied about and Matlala agreed to pay R1-million in compensation.
These revelations appeared to have no effect on Matlala’s fortunes. His marriage survived, his businesses thrived, he was asked by the government to be a “sports ambassador”, while continuing to promote safe sex. The blackmail blip is well behind him and Jake is now poised for a lucrative career that will keep him in the spotlight.