Johannesburg-based boxing trainer-cum-manager, Colin ‘Nomakanjani’ Nathan, has insisted that glory belongs to unified world champion, Bernice ‘The Badger’ Ferreira, not her corner.
Nathan was in the corner together Bernie Pailman when Ferreira made history by becoming the first female boxer from the African continent to be a unified world champion after she added the World Boxing Council (WBC) belt to her International Boxing Organisation (IBO) junior-lightweight title following her win over French-born Canadian, Caroline Veyre, at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America (USA) last weekend.
“It’s only starting to sink in now. Funny, but I have a bomber jacket with all the world title patches from the world titles I have won since I started NO DOUBT in July of 2018. I had a WBC world champion patch that I got when Tshepo Lefele won his WBC International mini-flyweight title in 2005. I have been waiting to stitch it on, and I finally did this week,” Nathan said.
“No one in the history of South African boxing has achieved and done this, so I usually never sit back and think, Colin, you have done well in your career, but this week I have. I have such good people around me, young coaches, whom I am grooming like Shannon Strydom, Shaun Ness, Arafaat Kock, and Danny de Oliveira.
“My business model has changed quite dramatically over the years. I don’t let my ego get in the way of making good business. Business should have no emotion, well, most of the time. And my principle of putting the fighter first has not changed. They will always be the stars of the shows, we simply are part of the cast.”
On Ferreira’s win, the award-winning Nathan said: “The moment is about Bernice, not us trainers. I had a very good feeling going to the fight that we were gonna win it. Bernice has got proper fire in the belly. You saw that even Caroline didn’t complain to the referee’s decision to disqualify her despite protestations from her corner.
He added: “Before her fight against Bukiwe Nonina, I never thought she was going to win and she won. It was after watching her fighting and taking most of the rounds against Nozipho Bell that I told her that I would never bet against her. Bernice is a hard worker and deserves all the titles she has.”
With him having been in Ferreira’s corner in the absence of the boxer’s trainer, Kock, Nathan became only the first South African to lead boxers to triumph in all top four world boxing bodies.
Apart from leading Hekkie Budler, Moruti Mthalane and Sivenathi Nontshinga to International Boxing Federation (IBF) titles, Nathan barked instructions from the corner when Phumelela Cafu won the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) junior-bantamweight title in 2024. He has also led Budler to World Boxing Association (WBA) glory before. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
