There will be no television coverage of next Sunday’s tournament, which is going to be promoted by East London promotional outfit Last Born Boxing Promotions.
Not only that, a venue for the tournament has also not been secured as East London’s Orient Theatre, which was earmarked to host the show, is in doubt because of its bad condition.
The East London venue was set to host two tournaments next weekend – a Xaba Promotions show on Saturday and Last Born’s the following day.
“SuperSport has told us that they won’t show the tournament on TV because Azinga is no longer fighting,” Last Born’s Mlandeli Tengimfene revealed.
Initially, Fuzile was the main bout in this tournament, but dropped out after he got an opportunity to face off against unbeaten Kazakh boxer Sultan Zaurbek in a World Boxing Association (WBA) Continental junior-lightweight title contest at Barys Arena in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Saturday, 5 April.
Tengimfene said about the state of Orient Theatre: “I had a meeting with the municipality and they promised to work on fixing Orient Theatre on Monday. We also have another option should Orient Theatre not be ready to host the tournament.”
Meanwhile, Ink Sport has it on good authority that SuperSport chiefs have told Xaba Promotions to go look for another venue for its tournament or lose the chance of its show being shown on television.
Our source alleged that Xaba Promotions was told that SuperSport won’t risk the lives of the broadcaster’s staff members by sending them to work at the Orient Theatre, which was flagged by Boxing South Africa (BSA) for being unsafe in December last year. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
