By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Instead of reminiscing about the best years of his boxing career, Koos Sibiya from Siyabuswa in Mpumalanga harbours too much hatred for the fistic sport, which consumed 27 years of his life.
With his last fight having been a loss to Lucky Monyebane in July 2022, the 42-year-old Sibiya has poured out his heart about what happened to him both in and outside the ring.
“Honestly speaking, I hate boxing even though I’m proud of what I achieved. It was not easy for me. There was too much hatred, people wishing me all the bad luck,” Sibiya said.
“I remember my late mom asking me to forget about boxing and join the church choir. That was when I was starting with my boxing career. I forced matters and later became a champion. But now I feel like I was never a champion. There’s no money in boxing. For 27 years as a boxer, nothing for me. I was looking at making money in boxing, but I encountered too many empty promises.”
Sibiya, who is a former African Boxing Union (ABU) junior-lightweight and World Boxing Federation (WBF) Africa featherweight champion, has now declared that he’s done with the sport even though he’s still licensed with Boxing South Africa (BSA) as a boxer.
“I’m not going to renew my licence because I have stopped boxing. I didn’t get fights last year. There’s nothing for me in boxing. I encountered a lot of problems last year, 2023 was a very bad year for me. I lost my twins and also lost my mom,” Sibiya said.
“There was a time when I didn’t even have money to pay rent. Things got worse from July until December. That’s when I stopped training. I’m 42, going for 43. Boxing never treated me well.”
Even though the former South African junior-featherweight and junior-lightweight title contender has made it clear that he hates the fistic sport, he has said that he might return to train boxers one day.
“I would love to train boxers, but not now because I’m still hurt. I have not healed yet. Maybe after a year I will consider becoming a trainer. Now I want to rest bit,” he said.
“I’ve got four kids and I stay with them together with my wife. I’m blessed to have a wonderful landlord who understands my situation. I’m broken inside, I’m hurting. Things didn’t go accordingly in boxing. I have accepted what happened and I want to distance myself from boxing.”
