Aphiwe Mboyiya’s promoter, KayB Promotions, will only consider jumping in to save the boxer’s SA title shot if Boxing SA addresses previous concerns raised regarding the fight and other tournament-related issues.
For the umpteenth time, Amalinda’s Mboyiya saw his SA junior-welterweight title clash scheduled on Saturday against nemesis Sibusiso Zingange being called off at the eleventh hour despite honouring the weigh-in ceremony.
The fight scheduled to be promoted by Johannesburg promoter Joyce Kungwane at Sun City in North West got cancelled when Kungwane’s partners left her stranded with no confirmation of a booked venue and other logistics.
Mboyiya was already in Johannesburg hoping to fulfil his ambition of winning his third SA title following his featherweight and junior-lightweight reign.
BSA said all the boxers who were to feature on the show would be paid their full purses.
However, this was scant consolation for the boxers, especially Mboyiya who suffered a third disappointment since his hopes of contesting the vacant title were dashed after BSA pulled the plug in May in East London.
Having concluded preparations to feature the fight as a double header with the SA featherweight title defence by Nxarhuni’s Zolisa Batyi against Lindelani Sibisi of KwaZulu-Natal, KayB boss Mzi Booi was ordered to downgrade it to a non-title encounter owing to Sipho Mahlangu’s low ranking.
This after second-rated Zingange wanted to enforce his challenge though he had previously indicated he was unavailable when offered the fight.
BSA later called purse bids for promoters to contest the promotional rights of the Mboyiya-Zingange title clash, only for the regulatory body to mess up the terms when Booi had already submitted his bid, forcing a reschedule.
Peeved by the bungle, Booi withdrew, leaving Kungwane to assume the promotional rights and schedule the fight for Emperors Palace in July.
However, Emperors Palace bosses withdrew the venue at the last minute, forcing Kungwane to seek another date and venue before settling for Sun City, this past Saturday.
Booi said he would have promoted the fight a while back had BSA not messed up his plans.
“This title would have a champion now and boxing would not find itself in this position had BSA attended to my concerns back then,” he said.
He said he would still consider promoting the fight if BSA could address his concerns raised about the conduct of its officials when KayB expressed interest in promoting the fight.
Booi said the concerns included the poor treatment by the provincial manager in their development tournament at the Guild Theatre in August.
BSA was not available to comment by the time of publication.
Daily Dispatch
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