Following his conquest on Japanese soil in October last year, Phumelela ‘The Truth’ Cafu will get an opportunity to defend his crown in front of his home crowd as his next fight is going to be held in South Africa.
However, it’s not clear as to where exactly is the Duncan Village-born world champion is going to defend his title as those details have not been communicated yet.
Cafu’s home defence will be somewhat of a historic event as South Africa last hosted a WBO title contest 25 years ago. That was when Masibulele ‘Hawk’ Makepula defeated the late Jacob ‘Baby Jake’ Matlala on points at Brakpan’s Carnival City.
“I got off the phone with one of my partners, Mr Honda of Teiken Promotions, yesterday morning and for whatever reason, the Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez fight has not come together. We are now moving ahead with Phumelela doing his first defence of his WBO title right here in South Africa,” Colin ‘Nomakanjani’ Nathan, who trains and manages Cafu, said.
A director at NO DOUBT Management, Nathan added: “We are currently looking at three provinces to host this event with the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Gauteng all being possibilities. Although we have not yet finalised an opponent for Phumelela, the WBO has strict policies regarding their challengers, so it will be someone credible.
“This upcoming contest is the biggest and most prestigious contest and world title fight since Sive (Nontshinga) defended his IBF world championship in East London in 2023. Equally, I am aware that there has never been a WBO world title fight in East London. In terms of Cape Town, the last WBO world title fight was when Nika Kumalo lost by a split decision to Manning Galloway in 1991. The date we are targeting is at the end of May.”
An over the moon Cafu said about this fight, which is going to be jointly promoted by Boxing 5 and Akihiko Honda’s Teiken Promotions: “It feels good that I’ll be fighting at home because most of my fans have been hoping that I fight at home. This is really a dream come true, knowing that every South African fan at the venue will be cheering for me.
“It’s very important to me to defend my title, once more, I get to showcase my skills in front of my home crowd, so I’m excited. You know my goal is to be undisputed and I want to fight the big names in the division, like Bam and Martinez. If the Gonzalez fight happens in the future, then great, I’m here to establish my own legacy.”
Meanwhile, Boxing 5 chief executive officer Larry Wainstein has admitted that he didn’t think an opportunity to promote Cafu’s world title defence would come so soon.
“Obviously, from my point of view, I didn’t think that this would happen in Cafu’s first defence. Truth be told, we were gearing up for us to travel to Nicaragua for Phumelela to defend his title against Gonzalez,” Wainstein remarked.
“When Colin called to say that we were changing direction to do a home-coming here in South Africa, I thought straight away that it’s an unbelievable opportunity. We are looking at putting on a world-class event along with a fantastic undercard that will be a global spectacle, especially with so much attention on the super-flyweight division right now. Boxing 5 along with NO DOUBT Management will continue to live the dream and change lives.”
