Duncan Village boxing star Phumelela Cafu has vowed to celebrate his birthday in style by making a triumphant ring return on Saturday after more than a year of inactivity.
Cafu celebrated his 28th birthday at the weekend amid concerns over the prospect of accumulating ring rust for his junior-bantamweight clash against Filipino Jemuel Aranas in his return at the Beula Park Academy in Germiston, Gauteng.
Cafu finally gets back into the ring since he suffered his first professional loss when he was stopped in 10 rounds by Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez in a WBC, WBO and Ring Magazine junior-bantamweight unification clash in July 2025.
The long layoff cost him his lofty WBO rating, leading to him missing out on a vacant title shot after Rodriguez relinquished the belts to move up to bantamweight, where he has since won the WBA belt.
While he put up a brave showing against Rodriguez, who is universally rated as one of the pound-for-pound boxers, Cafu did not fare well in his last bout against a Filipino foe.
He was lucky to escape with a close win when he struggled mightily against Filipino Genis Libranza in Soweto in 2023, when Libranza used his big frame to bully him in a Xaba Promotions show.
But Cafu insisted there would be no repeat of that against Aranas.
“I studied Aranas, and I detected his strengths and weaknesses so I know what to expect from him,” he said.
Cafu said the long layoff would not hurt his game plan as he had remained in the gym under Colin Nathan’s astute eye at the HotBox gymnasium.
“There are plenty of sparring partners in the gym, and that helped me to shake off any rust that might have accumulated.
“So you will see the same sharp and focused Cafu, if not a better version of him on Saturday.”
Nathan said Cafu was in the best shape of his life for the fight, with a win likely to vault him back in the world title mix.
“The junior-bantamweight is wide open after Bam vacated the belts and we are looking to throw it Cafu to claim his own piece of silverware,” he said.
Aranas arrived in the country on Tuesday with his team, led by trainer Edgar Dayondon, determined to cause one of the biggest upsets by a Pinoy boxer in SA.
Coming off a two-bout winning streak, the 21-year-old will fight outside his country for the first time in his 13-bout career, which shows three losses and a draw with eight wins.
The Filipino suffered two of the losses against one opponent, Nathaniel Dorona, who first stopped him in the first round in February 2025 before repeating the feat eight months later with a unanimous decision.
Like Dorona, his other first conqueror, Roderick Bautista, who stopped him in six rounds, was also unbeaten when he faced him.
Despite never losing to a boxer with a blemish, Aranas will be a big underdog against Cafu, who is still considered one of the world-class boxers in the junior-bantamweight division.
