By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Sivenathi ‘Special One’ Nontshinga and his trainer Colin ‘Nomakanjani’ Nathan are serious about the boxer successfully defending his International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-flyweight title in so much that they have decided against attending the upcoming IBF convention.
Nontshinga and Nathan were due to travel to the United States to receive the IBF Fight of the Year award at the organisation’s 38th convention, which is scheduled for The Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park, California, Illinois, starting from Sunday, 28 May to Thursday, 1 June.
The award recognises Nontshinga’s epic fight against Hector Flores in Hermosillo, Mexico, which he won by a split decision to hand the Mexican his first career loss.
Nontshinga’s preparations for his title defence, which is against Filipino boxer Regie Suganob on Friday, 16 June, have forced him to cancel the US trip.
“We have made a decision and we are not going to the IBF convention. I have even spoken to the IBF president Daryl Peoples about this,” Nathan said.
Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Nontshinga from East London will be making the first defence of his IBF title when he trades blows with Suganob.
The 25-year-old Suganob earned the right to challenge Nontshinga after he defeated his Filipino compatriot Mark Mendoza Vicelles in an elimination bout in February this year.
Both Nontshinga and Suganob are unbeaten with the South African having won all his 11 fights with nine of those victories coming from knockouts. Suganob, on the other hand, has 13 wins with four stoppages.
