Come Friday night South Africa will be boasting a new boxing world champion ? one who exudes power, determination and, most of all, attitude.
Most of our recent world champions have been missing that prime ingredient. Attitude is by and large one of the key factors to making a boxer a saleable commodity and Lunga Ntontela has enough to make him a bestseller.
Ntontela, nicknamed ?Mad Dog?, will be thrown in the deep end when he steps into the ring against Edison ?Guapito? Torres for the vacant International Boxing Organisation (IBO) junior-bantamweight world title in East London.
Torres, a former Venezuelen champion, is a veteran of 53 fights, having won 36 and drawn one. He has unsuccessfully challenged for the IBO world title twice before. Both of his title fights went 12 rounds, although he was stopped in the final round of his last bout.
In contrast, Ntontela is undefeated after nine fights, but has never fought an international opponent. He is, however, the South African champion and has shown the skill and punching power to be ranked among the best in this division in the world.
If successful, Ntontela will hold the South African record for winning a world title in the fewest number of fights. Silence Mabuza currently holds the record, having won his IBO bantamweight world crown in his eleventh paid outing.
With the recent string of losses suffered by Eastern Cape boxers in world title fights, a win by Ntontela will restore some pride to the region.
The Eastern Cape, which at one time had four reigning world champions, has just one now ? Gabula Vabaza, the World Boxing Union junior-bantamweight champion.
Vabaza, like Ntontela is in the stable of former International Boxing Fed-
eration junior-featherweight king Welcome Ncita. Come fight night, it is likely that the affable former champion will be in the enviable position of having two world champions in the same weight division.