Gqeberha-based boxer Noni Tenge’s fight against Ema Kozin from Slovenia, which was set for Malta in July, has been called off.
The clash scheduled for Friday, 30 July, was cancelled after the Maltese government passed a regulation barring South Africans from entering their country until the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided.
Tenge and Kozin were due to fight for the World Boxing Federation (WBF) and World Boxing Council (WBC) Interim female middleweight titles.
South African boxer Ayanda Nkosi was pencilled to clash against Indonesian Daud Yordan in a WBF lightweight title contest on the same bill.
The cancellation of the fights was revealed by Cape Town-based WBF president Howard Goldberg.
“COVID-19 has unfortunately caused a cancellation of Noni’s and Nkosi’s fights as the latest rules and regulations for entry into Malta prohibit anyone from South Africa from entering Malta,” Goldberg said.
“Everything was signed and sealed. We had a request from the Maltese government that everyone gets vaccinated and we organised that. Then they changed their regulations saying that no one from South Africa is allowed to enter Malta.”
Goldberg, a former fight referee and judge, also revealed that the winner of the Tenge-Kozin bout was going to face unbeaten female world champion Claressa Shields.
The American is the holder of the WBC, World Boxing Organisation (WBO), World Boxing Association (WBA) Super and International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-middleweight belts.
“It was a massive fight with the winner scheduled to fight Shields at the end of the year,” Goldberg said.
