It was more like the circus was in town in Durban on Thursday evening when a J4Joy Boxing Promotions’ tournament turned into a big, big joke as it was called off in the last minutes.
The tournament, which was initially scheduled for the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday was postponed to Tuesday and then Thursday. Thursday’s tournament was pencilled to have six bouts, but the number of fights was then reduced to three owing to the non-payment of a sanctioning fee to the World Boxing Federation (WBF).
The three bouts that were going to take place were the KwaZulu-Natal junior-welterweight title fight between Lindokuhle Dlamini and Ntethelelo Nkosi as well as the South African junior-welterweight bout where reigning champion Prince Dlomo was going to defend his crown against Marcus Lebogo.
The vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) Pan-African bantamweight title fight between Rofhiwa Nemushungwa and Fillipus Shaanika from Namibia was also slated to take place.
However, the vacant IBO Intercontinental lightweight title fight between Azinga ‘Golden Boy’ Fuzile and Mexican Rene Tellez Giron, Mapule Ngubane’s World Boxing Organisation (WBO) International female middleweight bout against American lass Maricela Cornejo as well as the WBF bantamweight clash between Ronald Malindi and Jorge Luis Orozco Mendoza from Mexico had already been cut off from the bill.
Ink Sport tried to get a comment from the relevant parties, but they were all locked up in a meeting.
