A bout between Eastern Cape boxers Nozipho Bell and Bukiwe Nonina, which was touted as going to be the biggest fight in South African female boxing, is not happening anymore.
Initially, Bell was scheduled to defend her SA female junior-lightweight title against Nonina, a former national and World Boxing Federation (WBF) bantamweight titlist, last month.
However, the bout got postponed after Nonina’s promoter Joyce Kungwane from TLB Boxing Promotions had pressing commitments outside the country in April.
“The fight was supposed to have been held at the end of April. The promoter called me asking for the fight to be moved to June as she had a commitment outside the country mid-April. I had no problem with that as I also wanted Bell to get a warm-up fight before facing Nonina,” Bell’s trainer and manager Lonki Witbooi said.
“We then got an offer for a warm-up fight in Bloemfontein. Unfortunately, that fight also got postponed. A few weeks ago, I got a call from Nonina’s promoter advising us that we should proceed with our plans to fight against another opponent.”
And with that in mind, Witbooi has other plans for Bell as he believes that the boxer from Walmer in Gqeberha should go international now.
“Bell has no competition here at home. I feel a fight against Nonina won’t do anything for her. My plans were always to get one fight here at home and then campaign internationally after that. In short, there’s no fight against Nonina,” Witbooi concluded. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
