South African boxing has emerged from the second year of the new millennium drenched in the candy-coated rhetoric of behind-the-scenes controversies and soaked in the heady aroma of bittersweet victories.
Add to that potent cocktail the plethora of outstanding successes and one can easily surmise that the noble art in this country is alive and well.
Historically pugilism is steeped in the tradition of controversy and success. It seems throughout the world that one element cannot do without the other.
Take Corrie Sanders’s stunning second-round win over Vladimir Klitschko for the WBO heavyweight crown in March in Hanover. The big Pretorian, a former WBU heavyweight holder, registered one of South Africa’s biggest wins ever.
But he was not given a hero’s welcome on his arrival back home.
The only people visible at Johannesburg International airport were his family, school kids from a farm school where he went, a few members of Boxing SA and the Gauteng Provincial Commission and just two journalists.
But Sanders had stunned the Former Ukranian in front of about 10 000 vociferous German fans.
Gauteng amateur boxer Bongani Mahlangu may be the only local boxer to represent South Africa in the Olympic Games in Athens next year. But his win cannot be compared with that of Sanders.
Mahlangu lost a points decision in the finals of the All African Games in Nigeria in October.
The whole country is still talking about Sanders’s win. He beat the man who was perceived to be another ”great white hope”. The victory is arguably the best performance by a South African sportsman this year and undoubtedly puts the boxer in line for the South African Sportsman of the Year title.
Sanders was also believed to have punched his way to a multimillion-rand super-fight, especially after CEO of Golden Gloves Rodney Berman had announced that Sanders would host either Lennox Lewis or Roy Jones Junior on Robben Island.
But that much-talked about ”multimillion-rand fight” did not materialise, because Sanders and Berman, surprisingly, ended their 14-year marriage.
Subsequently Sanders was stripped of his belt.
Boxing SA, which was appointed by Minister of Sport Ngconde Balfour last year in May, was officially launched in March.
Chairperson Mthobi ”Choirmaster” Tyamzashe and CEO of Boxing SA Thabo ”Marvellous” Moseki unveiled their company’s colours and its logo during the launch in Midrand in March.
It was during that launch that the no-nonsense Tyamzashe read the riot act to members of the media, especially to those who misbehaved in a national championship two weeks prior the launch.
It was an auspicious occasion that marked the new era in the history of boxing in South Africa.
Then came the tragic deaths of two former South African welterweight and Eastern Cape junior middleweight champions — Luvuyo Kakaza and Mandisi Sizane respectively.
Kakaza died after being shot by robbers, who entered his house and demanded the keys of his car.
Sizani was stabbed to death by a group of thugs at a traditional ceremony in Mdanstane.
The boxing fraternity also lost two giant boxing officials — Jaap van Niewenhuizen and Maurice Owen — both of whom died of natural causes.
But Boxing SA has promised to begin the new year with a bang at its annual awards at Birchwood hotel in Benoni on January 30.
One of the disappointments of the year was Floyd Mayweather’s defusing of Philip ”Time Bomb” Ndou in seven rounds of their scheduled 12-rounder for the WBC lightweight title in November. — Sapa