By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Serious training business continues as Gqeberha-based boxer Noni Tenge carries on with her preparations for next month’s fight against Ema Kozin from Slovenia.
Tenge and Kozin will trade leather in a World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver and World Boxing Federation (WBF) female junior-middleweight bout in Pforzheim, Germany, on Saturday, 28 May. Tenge and her trainer Nicky Erasmus are scheduled to leave South Africa for Germany on Tuesday, 24 May.
“They are trying to destabilise me. They must forget it because their tricks are not going to work. We are going to leave four days before the fight. That is wrong. They have made sure that we leave late because they are trying to protect Ema. This kind of treatment is not on,” Tenge remarked.
“They don’t know who they are dealing with and I’m going to beat Ema just for that. I’m an experienced boxer and Ema has nowhere to hide. She’s going to pay for everything that these people are doing to me. She comes from a loss to Claressa Shields and she’s now going to fight against the Claressa Shields of Africa. I’m already on weight, I’m 67,5 kilograms.”
Tenge, a former International Boxing Federation (IBF) and WBF female welterweight titlist, has not fought in almost three years. Her last fight was when she successfully defended her title against Mapule Ngubane, who is now a South African female middleweight champion, at the Mdantsane Indoor Sport Centre in August 2019.
On the other hand, Kozin last fought when she lost to unbeaten World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA), IBF and WBF female middleweight champion Claressa Shields from the United States in Cardiff, Wales, in the United Kingdom two months ago.
The winner of the Tenge-Kozin fight is going to face 27-year-old WBC female junior-middleweight champion Patricia Berghult Svensson from Sweden for the vacant WBC and WBF titles.
