After enduring criticism following Phumelela ‘The Truth’ Cafu’s loss to Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez last weekend, boxing trainer and manager Colin ‘Nomakanjani’ Nathan remains unapologetic about the manner in which he conducts his business.
Some boxing fans heavily criticised Nathan saying that he shouldn’t have taken the fight against Rodriguez as it was high risk. And it’s now history that the American boxer stopped Cafu in the 10th round in Texas, United States of America (USA), on Sunday morning, South African time.
As a result of handing Cafu his first career loss, Rodriguez added the Duncan Village-born boxer’s World Boxing Organisation (WBO) junior-bantamweight title to his World Boxing Council (WBC) and Ring Magazine belts.
“People can say whatever they want to say, the truth is that I’m the only manager who makes millionaires. I turn boxers into millionaires, that’s a fact. You can go check with Moruti (Mthalane), Hekkie (Budler), Sive (Nontshinga), Lerato (Dlamini) and now Phumelela,” Nathan said.
The award-winning Johannesburg-based boxing trainer added: “I’m happy as long as my boxers are happy. What I did for Phumelela, I can do it again a thousand times. We should never be ashamed of our achievements. Boxing is business and boxers must make money now, not tomorrow. And people must understand that.”
Nathan, the 2017 Trainer of the Year award winner, re-iterated that gone are the days where former champions become destitute as soon as they retire from the fistic sport.
“I don’t want my boxers to be penniless when they retire. That era of boxers becoming penniless once they retire is long gone,” Nathan concluded. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
