Lusanda ‘Mexican’ Komanisi and his adversary Khaya Busakwe are ready to rumble after making the weight during a weigh-in held at the Kennaway Hotel in East London on Thursday.
Komanisi, a former South African and International Boxing Organisation (IBO) featherweight champion, meets Busakwe at the Orient Theatre in East London on Friday evening.
This is going to be Komanisi’s first defence of the SA lightweight title he annexed after he dethroned former champion Tshifhiwa Munyai at the Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, in September last year.
The 33-year-old Mdantsane-born Komanisi whose boxing skills are honed by Vusi Mtolo in Edenvale, Ekurhuleni, is on a six-fight winning streak having stopped four of his last six victims.
Busakwe, on the other hand, will be making a second attempt at winning the SA lightweight title having failed to do so when he was stopped by Munyai at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg in May 2021.
This is going to be Soweto-born Busakwe’s second visit to the Eastern Cape coastal city in less than a year. Busakwe stopped former national featherweight champion Aphiwe Mboyiya at the East London International Convention Centre (ICC) in October last year.
Komanisi has registered 27 victories with 22 knockouts and six defeats while Busakwe has eight wins (all stoppages), three losses and a draw.
The Komanisi-Busakwe duel is going to be one of the supporting bouts to the vacant IBO Intercontinental junior-bantamweight title contest between Sada’s Landile Ngxeke and Michael Mendoza from the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Katlehong’s Mpumelelo Tshabalala is going to make the second defence of his SA junior-flyweight title when he fights against Athenkosi Thongwana from Duncan Village in the same tournament.
