Six months after winning the South African female junior-lightweight title, Bernice ‘The Badger’ Ferreira added a world crown following a points win over Malawian boxer Ellen Simwaka at the Wild Coast Sun in Bizana, Eastern Cape, on Saturday evening.
Ferreira won the vacant International Boxing Organisation (IBO) female junior-lightweight title after all three judges – Siphiwe Mbini (96-92), Patrick Mukondiwa (97-93) and John Shipanuke 98-92) – agreed that she had done enough to be crowned the new champion.
As a result of her win, Ferreira, who was ushered into war by Arafaat Kock assisted by Shannon Strydom, Colin Nathan and Bernie Pailman, made history by becoming the first South African female boxer to win an IBO title.
Meanwhile, SA bantamweight champion and world rated Landile Ngxeke registered a seventh round technical knockout win over Namibian opponent Jonas Matheus in the main supporting bout.
Kabisile Tshabalala defeated Thema Zuma on points with Jarred Silverman registering his third win in his last four fights after he stopped Khumbulani Mdletshe in the third round with Elizabeth Ndlovu defeating Emma Mohono on points.
On the other hand, Ricardo Shaw stopped Libuyile Gawuza in the first round of a fight, which featured KwaZulu-Natal boxers against each other.
And in another bout featuring Kwa-Zulu-Natal boxers, Akshay Singh outpointed Celimpilo Ngema with Jordan Peace stopping Cyril Mulweli in the second round. Jo-Lee van Tonder defeated Lerato Malefane via a third round technical knockout.
