Ntethelelo Nkosi couldn’t afford to miss one of the biggest opportunities in his boxing career – being part of the WBC Grand Prix, and as such he has since decided to vacate his South African junior-welterweight title.
Nkosi took the decision to relinquish the SA title after the Boxing South Africa (BSA) sanctioning committee had ordered him to make a mandatory defence against Aphiwe ‘Swagger’ Boyiya next month.
In a letter to Nkosi’s trainer Damien Durandt, sanctioning committee chairperson Irvin Buhlalu said: “In light of everything being said, the committee have recommended that the champion defend his SA title on the said date or vacate it.”
Responding to Buhlalu’s letter, Durandt said: “The champion has confirmed he will be vacating the SA title due to the situation at hand. The champion has requested the sanctioning and ratings committees to rate him as the number one challenger after the vacant title has been contested for.”
And Durandt has wished Boyiya all the best in his upcoming fight, which is pencilled for Sunday, 27 April, in East London.
Nkosi, who stopped Prince Dlomo in the ninth round to win the SA title in November 2023, was going to make his second defence against Boyiya after he stopped Sanele Msimang in the first round in October last year.
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 last-32 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. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
