SA’s lone WBC champion, Siyakholwa Kuse, will give up home comfort when he travels to Japan for his maiden title defence against unbeaten star Ryusei Matsumoto on September 27.
The fight will form part of a historic occasion featuring two SA boxers contesting for WBC titles on one card, with Ricardo Malajika also vying for the green and gold belt against Japan’s Tomoya Tsuboi for the vacant junior-bantamweight trinket.
Kuse, from Mdantsane, made history by becoming the first boxer from the Eastern Cape to win the WBC title when he dethroned Filipino Melvin Jerusalem for the mini-flyweight version in May in Kempton Park.
The fight was the rematch of their October 2025 clash when Jerusalem prevailed with a close unanimous decision in Manila in an event coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Thrilla in Manila.
While the rematch came due to Jerusalem’s generosity to accommodate Kuse in a voluntary defence window, the Mdantsane southpaw’s camp moved swiftly to bring him back to the ring before he was due for a mandatory.
Kuse’s promoter, Golden Gloves Promotions, confirmed that the fight against Matsumoto would be a voluntary, offering the Mdantsane boxer an opportunity to cash in on his belt.
Japan is considered the country offering good purses for small divisions dominated by its boxers and Kuse has arguably been made an offer he could not refuse.
However, facing an unbeaten challenger in eight bouts at home, who like him is also a left-hander, may present a high risk, though the reward will also make up for it.
GGP director Nivi Grogor described the fights as historic for both Kuse and Malajika on foreign territory.
“I have watched both these fighters grow from raw talent into genuine world beaters,” she said.
“To see them both share a stage like this on the same night chasing history is everything GGP set out to do.
“However September goes, SA boxing has already won.”
The last time two SA boxers contested for world titles in Japan in one week was when KuGompo City’s Sivenathi Nontshinga and Phumelela Cafu fought for IBF and WBO titles in the space of two days in October 2024.
Nontshinga surrendered his IBF junior-flyweight title to Masamichi Yabuki via a ninth-round stoppage in Aichi, Tokomane, before Cafu caused an upset by dethroning four-division champion Kosei Tanaka for the WBO junior-bantamweight crown in Tokyo.
GGP said Matsumoto would present a live and dangerous threat to Kuse, though the Mdantsane boxer had a proven pedigree to compete in enemy territory.
“The fight is the kind of assignment which either cements a champion’s credentials or exposes a pretender and Kuse’s camp will know exactly what is at stake,” it said.
