Siyakholwa Kuse has received a massive opportunity to emulate the late Dingaan ‘The Rose of Soweto’ Thobela by winning a World Boxing Council (WBC) title on home soil.
Thobela stopped Glenn Catley from the United Kingdom in the 12th round and, in the process, captured the WBC super-middleweight title at the Carnival City, Brakpan, in September 2000.
And now Mdantsane-born Kuse is set to challenge reigning WBC minimumweight champion Melvin ‘El Gringo’ Jerusalem from the Philippines at the Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, on Saturday, 16 May. This is a rematch of their fight, which was won by Jerusalem in Manila, Philippines, in October last year.
“I have secured the rematch. Jerusalem will meet Siya on May 16th at Emperors Palace. Siya becomes only the second person in the history of South African boxing to challenge for a WBC title in South Africa,” Golden Gloves managing director Rodney Berman confirmed.
“If he wins, he will become only the second South African ever to win a WBC title in South Africa. The only South African to win a WBC title at home was obviously the great Dingaan Thobela. There are only two fighters in the history of South African boxing that have won a WBC title inside the ring. Dingaan and the great Sugarboy Malinga, who beat Nigel Benn in England.”
Should Kuse, a former SA and African Boxing Union (ABU) minimumweight titlist, emerge victorious against Jerusalem, he will become the first boxer from the boxing-mad Eastern Cape to win the much-coveted WBC title.
Before securing the rematch against Jerusalem, Kuse was initially scheduled to face off against another Filipino boxer Joey Canoy in a WBC minimumweight elimination bout at the same Kempton Park venue on Saturday, 28 March. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
