The camps of KuGompo City boxers are confident that the arbitration which heard arguments in their SA featherweight title dispute will rule in their favour.
Boxing SA held a two-day arbitration hearing at its Pretoria offices attended by the camps of Duncan Village boxer Siyabulela Hem and Makhanda-born, Mdantsane-based Bongani Fule over their dispute on who should get a first preference to challenge for KwaZulu-Natal’s Lindelani Sibisi’s featherweight belt.
The hearing, which started on Wednesday, was also attended by Sibisi’s handlers Hlula Dladla, who promotes him, and manager Colin Nathan.
All the camps were given an opportunity to present and argue their case on what should happen after BSA was caught up in the saga.
This is when BSA chief operations officer Mandla Ntlanganiso pronounced that Fule deserved the first preference owing to his position as a mandatory challenger and having already submitted the challenge form to face Sibisi in Escourt this Saturday.
However, the BSA sanctioning committee argued that Hem should get the first shot due to his status as the SA junior-featherweight champion in line with the newly amended championship policy.
Nathan implored BSA to abide by Ntlanganiso’s pronouncement and disregard the sanctioning committee’s ruling, which he described as nonsensical.
As the saga escalated, BSA chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka informed the board and subsequently invited all the parties to an arbitration hearing to argue their cases physically.
Lejaka confirmed that all the parties were requested to submit their final concluding inputs in writing after the two-day deliberation.
“As Boxing SA, we are humbled by the respectful and professional manner with which all parties have conducted themselves so far,” he said.
“This is really illustrative of the maturity of our systems, where even difficult situations such as dispute resolution processes are able to be handled with decorum and respect for the rule of law.”
Lejaka said the panel’s verdict was expected to be announced any time this week ahead of Saturday’s tournament, with the SA featherweight title clash still up in the air.
But Fule’s manager, Andile Mshumpela, said he was confident the ruling would favour his boxer to free him to challenge Sibisi on Saturday.
“We made a compelling case for us to get the first preference in accordance with the regulations,” he said.
“We punched holes in the sanctioning committee’s ruling, which was based on championship policy which should be superseded by the regulations.”
Asked if Fule was ready for Saturday’s fight in the midst of the saga, Mshumpela said: “We are very much ready because despite all this uncertainty, we never stopped training.
“We were always confident of our case, and as soon as the outcome of arbitration is announced, we will travel to Escourt to take the title from Sibisi on Saturday.”
However, Hem’s promoter Ayanda Matiti, who was looking to stage Hem’s clash against Sibisi last Saturday, insisted that the only fight sanctioned was the Hem-Sibisi bout.
“We are therefore confident that BSA will do the right thing and abide by the decision of the sanctioning committee, which has so far sanctioned one bout,” he said.
Matiti admitted that the saga disrupted his plans to bring back Hem, which was scheduled for March 20.
However, he said the Duncan Village beanpole would now return on April 24 as part of the highly publicised clash between Asanda Gingqi and Azinga Fuzile.
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