East London boxing trainer Kholisile ‘KC’ Cengani wishes his boxer Ayanda Ndulani’s next fight was against an overseas opponent, not a local boxer.
Ndulani is scheduled to face Siphamandla Baleni in the second defence of his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) minimumweight title at the East London International Convention Centre (ICC) on Sunday, 4 September.
Initially, Ndulani was set to defend his title against Baleni at the East London venue last month. However, the fight got postponed because of what Xaba Promotions boss Ayanda Matiti said was budgetary constraints.
“This thing of fighting against the same boxer now and again is not on. Unfortunately, we don’t have a choice,” Cengani said.
“We would have loved to fight against boxers from outside South Africa. We are being undermined because we have not fought against an overseas opponent. We won the title after beating a local boxer. We are now going to defend against a local boxer. Clearly, we are not getting the recognition we deserve.”
Ndulani, who won the IBO title after he defeated Nkosinathi Joyi, beat Baleni in November last year. But some boxing followers maintained that Baleni had been robbed.
