Yanga ‘Showtime’ Sigqibo, his trainer Thembani ‘Best’ Gopheni and current International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-flyweight champion Sivenathi ‘Special One’ Nontshinga are going to leave South Africa for Japan on Saturday.
Sigqibo, who has spent more than a month training at the Hot Box Gym in Johannesburg, is going to Japan for the biggest fight of his boxing career against Japanese boxer Kosei Tanaka.
The 28-year-old Sigqibo from Duncan Village in East London clashes with the former world champion at a tournament, which is going the be promoted by Kiyoshi Hatanaka’s Hatanaka Promotions, at the Takeda Teva Ocean Arena in Nagoya on Sunday, 11 December.
“We are leaving for Japan on Saturday. Showtime has worked very hard at training preparing for this fight. We are ready for Tanaka,” Gopheni said.
Sigqibo has enjoyed a seven-year unbeaten run with his last and only loss coming from a fight against Ayanda Ndulani, the current International Boxing Organisation (IBO) minimumweight champion, in October 2015. Sigqibo has 17 victories (five stoppages), a loss and a draw.
The 27-year-old Tanaka is a former World Boxing Organisation (WBO) minimumweight, junior-flyweight and flyweight champion. Tnaka, a resident of Nagoya, has an impressive professional record having won 17 of his fights with 10 of those ending in knockouts against a single defeat.
Sigqibo is rated eighth by the World Boxing Council (WBC) and fourth by the WBO while Tanaka is fourth on both the WBC and the World Boxing Association (WBA) ratings with the IBF and the WBO rating him in third spot.
