By Monwabisi Jimlongo
The fact that the name of his opponent has finally been confirmed has left Phumelela ‘The Truth’ Cafu at ease and he has promised to ‘decapitate’ Enathi Stelle’s head when they meet in East London on Saturday, 16 December.
This fight was finally confirmed after some back and forth where Cafu’s opponent was changed almost every second day. It all began when Stelle’s manager Andile Mshumpela didn’t accept a purse, which was initially offered to his boxer.
Then Mpilo Cele from Umlazi in Durban was approached to fight against Cafu and he agreed, but delayed sending back a signed contract. While Cele was still thinking about sending back the signed contract, Gcina Makhoba from Dundee was then confirmed as Cafu’s opponent.
However, things went back to square one when Mshumpela and Xaba Promotions found each other something that led to Stelle signing a contract to clash against Cafu in a vacant South African junior-bantamweight title contest next month.
“I’m happy because I’m now sure about who my opponent is. Anyway, I had been preparing myself to fight for the vacant title against anyone,” Cafu from Duncan Village remarked.
Stelle from Mdantsane had the better of Cafu when they were still fighting in the amateur ranks. But Cafu has vowed to turn the tables against him this time around.
“I know Stelle very well. I fought against him at amateur and they gave him the fight even though I had beaten him. He knows that. I’m going to chop his head off, that’s a promise. I can see that they are hyped up for this fight and they are talking a lot,” Cafu said.
“I know that he did well at amateur level. However, he hasn’t done anything as a professional boxer while I have proven that I can box and take punches. He has some questions to answer during the fight. I’m going to ask him a lot of questions.”
Cafu is rated highly by the world’s top four boxing bodies – World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Organisation (WBO). He’s 13th in the WBC ratings, WBA (12), IBF (7) and is rated 15th by the WBO.