Duncan Village star Phumelela Cafu left for the US at the weekend, determined to upset Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez’s post-unification fight plans after the American scheduled another bout in November.
Cafu will unify his WBO title with Rodriguez’s WBC and Ring junior-bantamweight belts at Frisco, Texas, on Saturday in the biggest fight involving an SA boxer in some time.
The unbeaten stars, of almost the same age with Cafu, 26, a senior by a year, will be part of a busy boxing schedule in US and England where another SA boxer Kevin Lerena will be in action against Lawrence Okolie for the WBC silver heavyweight title on the undercard of the undisputed heavyweight duel between Aleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois.
However, SA eyes will be on Cafu as he embarks on yet another audacious trip abroad, nine months after he surprised the world by dethroning four-division world champion Kosei Tanaka in Japan.
There were concerns that the strained diplomatic relations between SA and the US would affect Cafu as his visa application appeared to have hit a snag when he was given a July 26 appointment.
But his manager Colin Nathan managed to expedite the process, freeing him and his charge to jet out to Las Vegas, where they will catch a connecting flight to Dallas.
However, the rest of the team, including cutman Bernie Pailman and Larry Wainstein, will follow later.
The trip coincided with the announcement that Rodriguez will face WBA champion Fernando Martinez in Saudi Arabia in November.
The announcement was made by Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh, underscoring Cafu’s underdog status heading into the unification clash.
But the WBO champion laughed off the news, promising to bring back not only Rodriguez’s belts but his head.
“I am not returning home without Bam’s head and I see his team has already scheduled another fight before our meeting,” he said.
“Boxing is full of twists and turns, and they will experience that in the worst possible way when I beat him to scupper all their plans.”
Oddsmakers have listed Cafu as a heavy underdog owing to Rodriguez’s boxing pedigree, which includes a slew of world titles at flyweight and junior-bantamweight.
The American has been treating the two decisions as if he is in a happy hunting ground, winning belts in the heavier weight class only to drop down to the flyweight to capture others before moving back up to do the same at junior-bantamweight.
He had already hinted at moving up to the bantamweight division to seek more belts before he was offered the clash against Martinez to convince him to stick around.
He and Cafu are yet to taste losses. with the Duncan Village boxer’s only blemishes in 14 bouts being three draws, while Rodriguez has a spotless 21 bouts with 14 stoppages.
Daily Dispatch
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