East London boxing manager Mlandeli Tengimfene will put ideas from his recent trip to the US into practice when Last Born Promotions stages the return of Duncan Village darling Azinga Fuzile at the Orient Theatre on December 14.
Tengimfene visited the US to revive connections in a quest to facilitate his boxers’ international careers.
The trip rekindled relations established in 2019 when his star boxer, Zolani Tete, was scheduled to face America-based Filipino Nonito Donaire in the bantamweight World Boxing Super Series semifinals.
Tete had to withdraw due to an injury, leaving Donaire to take on last replacement Stephon Young, whom he knocked out in six rounds. He then faced Japan’s Naoya Inoue in the final, losing on points.
“We established groundbreaking working relations with a lot of influential boxing people when we were there but they were all put on hold by the outbreak of Covid-19,” Tengimfene said.
“We decided to revive them to curb the exodus of our best talent to Johannesburg.”
Tengimfene lost star fighter Siyakholwa Kuse to Johannesburg where he joined the Brian Mitchell Academy shortly after beating Academy boxer Beaven Sibanda in December.
The new handlers took Kuse to a WBC mini-flyweight title shot against Filipino Melvin Jerusalem, who beat him by a razor-thin points decision in Manila three weeks ago.
Tengimfene feels Kuse could have won had his original team been with him in Manila.
But instead of wallowing in self-pity, he decided to strengthen his international relations to take his boxers directly to big fights abroad.
One of them is Fuzile, whose international career was in danger of fizzling out after he lost a close fight to Sultan Zaurbek in Kazakhstan in April.
The deal will see Fuzile relaunch himself in a crossroads international junior lightweight clash against Venezuelan Hector Gonzalez as they both bid to return to winning ways.
While Fuzile went down to Zaurbek om a contentious points decision, Gonzalez suffered a fifth-round stoppage to Maicol Rincon in Colombia, also in April, making the bout a shot at redemption.
The loss snapped the Venezuelan’s nine-bout winning streak.
The tournament will also feature the eagerly anticipated Boxing SA-ordered rematch between Tengimfene charge Mthokozisi Ngxaka and Thinumzi Gqola for the SA mini-flyweight title.
The pair fought to a disputed outcome in Johannesburg three months ago, with Gqola sneaking a split-decision victory.
Tengimfene protested against the outcome and BSA sided with him and ordered a rematch.
“This bout has its own storyline given what happened in Johannesburg and we want to correct the wrongs, hence its dubbed Repeat Or Revenge,” Tengimfene said.
Several top boxers, including newly crowned SA welterweight champion Phaphama Rhonorhono and former SA junior bantamweight champion Lwando Mgabi, will be in action.
Daily Dispatch
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