Cape Town-based promoter Byenda Allen Chizungu has denied threatening Western Cape Boxing South Africa (BSA) manager Mzoli Tempi with violence on Saturday evening.
However, an eyewitness, who asked to remain anonymous, told Ink Sport that a visibly angry Chizungu allegedly threatened to beat up Tempi after the provincial BSA manager refused to let the Maxim Boxing Africa tournament held at the Vibrant Sports Centre in Ottery, Cape Town, start because only one ambulance was at the venue. Normally, two ambulances are required to be at a venue before a tournament could go ahead.
An eyewitness said: “The provincial manager was threatened with his life by the promoter Allen. The show was due to start at six and only started at half past nine because there was only one ambulance at the venue. The main fight didn’t take place because the boy from Mpumalanga didn’t want to fight at quarter to 12 last night.”
Ink Sport called Chizungu and he said: “I never threatened Mzoli. He has got a group of people to go against me. Mzoli makes me look bad here in the Western Cape. The problem was that we had one ambulance on standby at the venue and he wanted two ambulances. That was a small development event.”
As a result of the late start, the main bout between Dwayne Dodzo and Sloan Venter didn’t take place. Venter refused to fight saying that he had been at the tournament venue since 16h00 and that spending more hours there had taken its toll on him.
We can reveal that two ambulances were on standby at the tournament venue in Chizungu’s previous two tournaments.
Meanwhile, Tempi declined to comment when Ink Sport contacted him for a comment on Sunday afternoon.
