By Monwabisi Jimlongo
A defiant chairperson of the sanctioning committee of Boxing South Africa (BSA) Sakhiwe Sodo remains unrepentant amid the brouhaha around the approval of Asanda Gingqi’s SA junior-lightweight title fight against Sifiso Hlongwane.
Sodo has made it clear that he won’t resign from his position after the BSA board overturned the sanctioning committee’s decision not to sanction Sunday’s national title fight between Gingqi and Hlongwane. Gingqi won the fight on points at the Orlando Community Hall in Soweto.
“I don’t intend to resign. No discussion on resigning has ever taken place. I’m not going to be forced to resign by the many people who continue to do wrong things. I will keep telling them what is right even if they keep on overruling me. I will continue telling them until they do what is right,” Sodo said.
The BSA board met three times between Thursday and Saturday last week deliberating on Gingqi’s fight against Hlongwane.
And the board finally decided on Saturday that the fight should go ahead as a title contest instead of a non-title bout, a decision which didn’t go down well with some followers of the fistic sport who felt that the custodians of professional boxing in South Africa were up to no good.
Noticeable, even the ratings committee had a different view as it didn’t rate Hlongwane in the junior-lightweight division.
The ratings committee argued that Hlongwane’s last opponent Ripfumo Shikwambane had lost seven fights in a row. And also his previous opponent Tamiwe Chisolola from Zimbabwe was stopped in all his three fights here in South Africa.
