The Steve Tshwete Boxing Series, a tournament which will feature 72 boxers from South Africa’s nine provinces, is set to start in East London.
This tournament was announced by Minister of Sport, Arts and CultureGayton McKenzie in Pretoria. The series is going to pit the best boxers province by province and will follow a point system and the province that has the most points will occupy the top position.
“We are putting in serious money in boxing. Boxing is part of our budget. Within 60 days we are going to have the Steve Tshwete tournament in East London at the new Orient Theatre, the home of boxing. On promoter said he comes from the same area as Comrade Steve Tshwete, so he must be the leader in that thing. I said “you are crazy, we are serious now”. We are going to have the biggest tournament on the African continent,” McKenzie remarked.
“I want to see which is the best province. I will make sure that Steve Tshwete’s grandchildren together with their parents are going to be flown to the tournaments so that they can see what a great man their grandparent was.”
And speaking about the series, acting Boxing South Africa (BSA) chief executive officer Tsholofelo Tsholofelo Lejaka said: “The Steve Tshwete Boxing Series, we are going to run it as a league. The competition is boxer to boxer, province to province. Each province will put together eight boxers, you multiply that by nine, that’s 72.”
Lejaka added: “The 72 boxers are gonna be fighting across the board. When you fight as a boxer, you are gonna be fighting for yourself. A knockout will carry a particular point, a unanimous decision win a particular point, a split decision a particular point.”
Accoring to Lejaka, the Steve Tshwete Boxing Series is going to be promoted by licenced BSA promoters, who will be given a chance to bid in order to host tournaments.
“We know that Boxing South Africa is a regulator, we don’t do tournaments. This is the opportunity for promoters. We will go into a bidding process,” Lejaka said. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
Thank you,
South Africa needed this for a long time. Minister of sport please focus on the broad casting and lastly we are waiting for the Oosthuizen vs larena fight ASAP.
KIND REGARDS
The Minister is doing wonders for boxing which is good we hope that more sponsors from East London will come to play also how I wish he could bring back the time slot for SABC back to life to attract a younger generation no late shows that targets our sport .