The mystery around the eligibility of Lehlohonolo Ledwaba and Eric Barcelona to challenge Cassius Baloyi and Silence Mbuza for their IBO junior light and bantamweight belts respectively in Benoni next month has been solved.
These bouts will be staged by promoter Rodney Berman of Golden Gloves.
There was confusion over the approval of both challengers, who are not rated in the weight categories in which they will be fighting.
Barcelona, of the Philippines, and Ledwaba have never fought in those weight divisions.
The Sowetan boxer, a former IBF junior feather and WBU featherweight holder, campaigns in the featherweight class. Barcelona is a junior bantamweight campaigner.
The two gladiators are also coming off defeats in their previous outings. Ledwaba suffered a points loss over 12 rounds to Spend Abazi for the WBA International Paba belt in Denmark in June.
Barcelona was outpointed by Komrit Lukkuongmeukol for the vacant Paba junior bantamweight belt in Thailand in August.
According to Boxing SA’s regulation 17.1 and 2, challengers must have established their credentials with at least three fights under their belts in the same weight class as that in which they have submitted their challenges.
However, it is not the same with the IBO.
According to president Ed Levine on Thursday, it is quite common in boxing for fighters to move up a division and fight for a world title.
”In fact, the past year has seen numerous championship fights involving challengers moving up. This is a quite frequent occurrence as fighters have difficulty making weight.
”Both Ledwaba and Barcelona are clearly eligible under our rules and are undoubtedly world class. We put major emphasis on real rankings, not the highly questionable rankings propounded by some other more well-known sanctioning bodies,” he said.
Ledwaba (33) is ranked 28th in the IBO’s featherweight class, and Barcelona occupies the 24th spot in the junior bantamweight category.
Ledwaba boasts 35 victories (22 KOs), three losses and a draw while the 31-year-old Filipino has recorded 26 wins (9 KOs), five losses and four draws. — Sapa