Vusi Malinga passed his first test on his mission to try to topple Thai legend Veeraphol Nakhonluang in Nonthaburi, Thailand, when he made the weight for their WBC bantamweight title eliminator scheduled for Thursday.
The weigh-in was held at the fight venue on Wednesday.
Malinga, who left the country together with his trainer and father, Jabu Malinga, last Friday, was within the prescribed bantamweight weight limit of 53,52kg. Nakhonluang also scaled 53,52 kg.
Malinga’s promoter, Branco Milenkovic, who left the country on Tuesday to join the South African entourage, admitted his charge had been listed as heavy underdog by Thai bookmakers against the veteran former world champion.
”Nobody there has ever seen Malinga fight, while Nakhonluang is regarded as one of the legends of Thai boxing.”
The 39-year-old Thai has fought an incredible 66 fights, losing only three and drawing two.
He has scored 43 knockouts, which makes Malinga’s patchy fight record of 20 bouts, two losses and a draw pale in comparison. However, Malinga’s camp can take solace from Nakhonluang’s history of struggling against left-handed fighters.
”That is one of our hopes for a victory and the fact that maybe Nakhonluang can get old overnight,” said Milenkovic shortly after the weigh-in on Wednesday.
Malinga will be the fourth African fighter the Thai faces in his long professional career.
Early in his career, 1996, he was knocked out in two rounds by Ghana’s Nana Yaw Konadu for the WBA bantamweight crown. Nakhonluang also beat two unheralded Tanzanian fighters inside the distance.
Besides facing a dangerous foe in Nakhonluang, Malinga will also have to contend with Thailand’s dubious officiating notorious for discriminating against visiting fighters.
Milenkovic said he tried to convince the WBC to appoint neutral officials and partially succeeded as two of the judges will be Australians while the third will be coming from the Philippines.
The referee, Bruce McTavish, is a Filipino who was one of the judges when Malinga’s compatriot Mzonke Fana controversially beat Randy Suico for the WBC junior lightweight title eliminator in Johannesburg in 2004. — Sapa