Kholisile ‘KC’ Cengani has boldly stated that his charge Ayanda Ndulani will be a better boxer when he fights against Siphamandla Baleni later this month.
Ndulani, who is trained by Cengani, is scheduled to defend his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) minimumweight title against Baleni at the East London International Convention Centre (ICC) on Friday, 29 July.
“We didn’t prepare well for last year’s fight because Ndulani was still mourning following the death of his brother, who was very close to him,” Cengani said.
“He was away from the gym for two full weeks. He was also distracted by his cousin’s death soon after his brother had died.”
Cengani added that they even asked for the postponement of last year’s fight. However, their wish for a postponement was not granted because of a number of reasons.
“We requested the postponement of the fight, but it didn’t get postponed. We had no problem with that and we honoured the fight. Now we are ready and we are going to win this fight. Ndulani is going to show Baleni that he is the better boxer,” he said.
Ndulani and Baleni have met twice before with each of them winning once. Ndulani defeated Baleni when they met in an IBO minimumweight title defence in November last year.
On the other hand, Baleni beat Ndulani when they clashed for the then vacant World Boxing Organisation (WBO) Africa minimumweight title in June 2019.
Ndulani is rated third by the World Boxing Council (WBC) while the International Boxing Federation (IBF) rates him in sixth position.
Baleni, meanwhile, is rated 13th by the World Boxing Association (WBA), seventh by the IBF and 14th by both the WBO and IBO.
