Ronald ‘King’ Malindi is not ready to relinquish the South African bantamweight title even though he struggled to make the weight before last month’s cancelled World Boxing Federation (WBF) fight against Mexican boxer Jorge Luis Orozco Mendoza.
Instead, the unbeaten Malindi is aiming to become the outright owner of the SA belt by making a fifth successful defence of the title he captured when he defeated Mbulelo Dyani on points at the Portuguese Hall in Turffontein, Johannesburg, in September 2018.
“It’s up to me now. I want to defend the SA title for the fifth time and then own the belt. I want to choose who I will meet in my next defence. People have been choosing opponents for me for some time now,” Malindi said.
Already, Malindi has beaten Rofhiwa Nemushungwa, the late Lwandile Sityata, Michael Daries and Cleutus Mbele in his defence of the national title.
“I was overweight by 1,5 kilograms before that cancelled fight. A number of factors contributed to that as you know that there were some postponements. I’m just happy that we got paid even though the fight was cancelled,” Malindi said referring to his cancelled fight against Mendoza.
