The first four months of 2023 are going to be busy for award-winning boxing trainer Colin ‘Nomakanjani’ Nathan as two of his boxers are going to be involved in world title fights.
Nathan is going to lead International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-flyweight champion Sivenathi ‘Special One’ Nontshinga in his first title defence in the first quarter of the year.
“It might be a very interesting moment for boxing in South Africa. Nontshinga is going to have a voluntary defence either here at home or overseas,” Nathan said.
Should Nontshinga successfully defend his IBF crown then he will fight in a mandatory defence against whoever wins between Mark Mendoza Vicelles and his Filipino compatriot Regie Suganob. The Filipinos are scheduled to fight in an elimination bout in Bohol, Philippines, on 25 February next year.
“The Filipinos are going to fight to decide who’s gonna be the mandatory challenger. That’s fine because we are entitled to a voluntary defence. Probably March is the best time for our voluntary defence,” Nathan said.
Cape Town-born Nathan will then usher Hekkie ‘Hexecutioner’ Budler into battle should he finally challenge reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Association (WBA) junior-flyweight titlist Kenshiro Teraji.
Budler is the WBC’s mandatory challenger, who is rated fourth by the WBA and second by the World Boxing Organisation (WBO). The 34-year-old Budler defeated Mexican Elwin Soto in an elimination bout in Mexico six months ago.
“With Hekkie, it will depend on how things go. Nothing concrete now. I’m hearing mixed reports from Japan. I can’t comment until I get confirmation,” Nathan remarked.
The 2017 and 2018 Trainer of the Year award winner added that Teraji might decide to face WBO junior-flyweight champion Jonathan Gonzalez before taking on Budler.
“There might be a situation where Kenshiro goes for Gonzalez. We might then get an interim fight, which was always on the cards until we got the ruling from the WBC,” Nathan said.
