By Monwabisi Jimlongo
The controversy around the vacant South African junior-bantamweight title doesn’t want to go away as East London-based boxers manager Andile Mshumpela has written to Boxing South Africa (BSA) ratings committee chairperson Willie Saayman asking him to dare remove his charge Enathi Stelle from the ratings.
According to information Ink Sport has gathered, Mshumpela penned the letter after he discovered that Saayman had allegedly been instructed to remove or drop Stelle from his number two position.
This followed after Mshumpela refused to sign a contract for Stelle to face off against Phumelela Cafu in a vacant SA junior-bantamweight title fight next month because of purse issues.
“I would like to state categorically that Enathi Stelle never said he doesn’t want to fight with Phumelela Cafu. The only issue is the low purse that is being offered. It is, therefore, not correct and economically of telling the truth that Enathi Stelle doesn’t want to fight with Phumelela Cafu,” Mshumpela said in the letter to Saayman.
“I have written to BSA, Mr Ngqumba explaining what needs to be done if Xaba Promotions is not willing to raise the purse and also if he is not agreeing on the offer that is coming from Kay-B Promotions. Then regulation(12) should be applied. This, therefore, means that the bout between Stelle and Cafu should go for purse bids.
“Also, I would like to caution the ratings committee in trying to remove Enathi Stelle from his number two spot in South African junior-bantamweight. We have worked so hard for Enathi Stelle to be in number two. Therefore, there should be no one that can just remove Enathi Stelle from that spot. I thought I should write you this message as the chairperson of the ratings committee.”
Ink Sport contacted Saayman for a comment and he said: “I’m not gonna comment on that.”
Meanwhile, Gcina Makhoba from Dundee in KwaZulu-Natal has been lined up to fight against Cafu on Saturday, 16 December.
