By Monwabisi Jimlongo
He was once accused of bending the rules for the benefit of certain boxers and promoters when he was the chairperson of the Boxing South Africa (BSA) ratings committee and he’s only been back in the same position for less than two weeks and already there are murmurs about Willie Saayman’s work.
According to the ratings preamble on the BSA website, ratings take consideration of all fights that took place between the first and last day of each month. However, it’s clear that the October ratings have been manipulated to suit a certain agenda as the number of discrepancies bear testimony to that.
Currently, there are two sets of ratings – one for the whole of September and the other which covers only action that took place on the first of October.
Mthatha’s Lusizo Manzana is rated number one in the ratings compiled by Andre de Vries, who was the ratings committee chairperson and left on the 30th of September. In Saayman and company’s October ratings, Manzana has been bumped to second place to make way for former SA junior-bantamweight champion Landile Ngxeke.
“I didn’t appoint myself. I was appointed by Boxing South Africa. The ratings were not compiled by me Willie Saayman behind a desk. Obviously, there are things that could be controversial. I’m not prepared to answer any more questions,” Saayman, who together with Khulile Radu and Mesuli Zifo form the ratings committee, told Ink Sport on Thursday.
Saayman is no stranger to ratings controversy. In 2015 Saayman, Glory Khathi, Ben Lekalake and Archie Jonas were accused of failing to enforce rules equally when it came to ratings as some rules were enforced while some were disregarded.
The same accusations surfaced yet again in 2017 where there were claims of bias against Saayman as he was the ratings committee chairperson.
Meanwhile, Akani Sambu is rated in second place in the September ratings. He has, however, been dropped to fourth place while Joshua Studdard whom he beat in a World Boxing Federation (WBF) Intercontinental bantamweight title fight on Sunday, 1 October, has moved up from 10th to third in Saayman and company’s ratings.
“I don’t have words. It’s illogical, you can’t be rated below a boxer you’ve just beaten. Where’s the logic? I really don’t understand this,” De Vries commented.
The mockery of the ratings is there for all to see, especially in the super-middleweight division where Lukhangele Jamjam is rated eighth even though he has lost all his four fights with three of them having been stoppages. Thando Mali is rated ninth in the same division despite losing three times and drawing once.
On the other hand, Sifiso Hlongwane, who was controversially approved to fight for the vacant SA junior-lightweight title in August despite not being rated in the division, has shot up to third place in the Saayman and company’s ratings even though he lost to Asanda Gingqi in his last fight. Interestingly, Hlongwane was not rated in the ratings compiled by De Vries.
“It’s so wrong. His previous opponent before his loss to Gingqi had lost six fights in a row. The one before that lost seven fights in a row. Hlongwane himself lost his last fight to Gingqi. How then did he get to number three? I really don’t understand this,” De Vries remarked.
De Vries resigned in August and ended his relationship with BSA at the end of September as per the resignation letter he sent to board chairperson Luthando Jack.
“In my letter of resignation I was very fair to Boxing South Africa because I gave them a six weeks notice. I said to them that I would do the ratings at the end of August and would also do them at the end of September as I was still officially the head of the ratings. Therefore, the ratings I issued at the end of September should still be the official ratings. Willie’s ratings should only be official at the end of October because he started working at the beginning of the month,” De Vries said.
