For Bathabile Ziqubu winning the World Boxing Federation (WBF) Africa female junior-bantamweight title was more like an atonement for failing to win the South African crown.
Ziqubu, who is trained by Mtuseni Dube, failed twice in her bid to win the SA female junior-bantamweight title when she lost to current national champion Thema Zuma last June and February this year.
However, Ziqubu has made amends by defeating Zimbabwean Revai Madondo to win the vacant WBF Africa female junior-bantamweight title at the Wells Estate Multipurpose Centre in Gqeberha on Sunday.
“It’s difficult to describe how I’m feeling at the moment. I’m very, very happy to have won this title. I still don’t believe that I’m the champion,” Ziqubu remarked.
That the outcome of the fight was a majority decision victory bears testimony to the fact that the Zimbabwean was not a pushover as Ziqubu has also admitted.
“It was a very tough fight. Revai is a strong and clever boxer. One knew that trying to go toe-to-toe with her was inviting trouble. I had to be careful all the time during the fight,” Ziqubu said.
Now the 33-year-old Ziqubu from Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal is looking for more defences and probably get an opportunity to challenge for the world title.
