In a bid to make sure that South African junior-welterweight champion Ntethelelo Nkosi fights in the WBC Grand Prix, his trainer Damien Durandt has denied that his boxer has a contract for the Sunday, 27 April fight against Aphiwe ‘Swagger’ Boyiya.
Nkosi signed with Kay B Pomotions to make a mandatory title defence against Boyiya in East London next month. However, in a letter to the Boxing South Africa (BSA) sanctioning committee, Durandt mentioned that Nkosi does not have a contract for the 27th April fight.
Instead, Durandt admitted that indeed Nkosi signed to meet Boyiya at the Orient Theatre in East London on Wednesday, 30 April.
“I would like to notify the sanctioning committee that Mr Nkosi signed the contract for the fight against Boyiya on the 4th December 2024. That being said, the date that was signed for the fight was the 30th April,” Durandt said in his letter.
Durandt added: “Please note that the promoter failed to provide me a new contract since changing the date of the fight to 27th April 2025 and therefore this fight was not signed.”
Contacted for comment, Kay B Promotions’ Mzi Booi said: “The 30 April contract still stands. We spoke via WhatsApp to change the date to 27 April. If I was in their position, I was going to focus on that fight (WBC Grand Prix), the benefits there are better purse and exposure.”
Meanwhile, the WBC Grand Prix starts in Saudi Arabia next month and the competition has 128 boxers across four divisions – featherweight, junior-welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight.
And each division will consist of 32 boxers who will fight against each other. The competition is going to start in the quarter-final stage and will feature eight-round bouts.
The number of rounds will go up to 10 in the finals with the winner in each division receiving the Jose Sulaimán Trophy, which is named after the late WBC president.
