By Monwabisi Jimlongo
It’s easy to understand that Melissa Miller still finds it difficult to forget what Boxing South Africa (BSA) did to her three days after she was declared a winner during a South African female bantamweight title fight against Sharadene Fortuin.
Miller was announced as the winner after the Fortuin fight at the East London International Convention Centre (ICC) two months ago, only to be told three days later that the outcome of the bout was in fact a draw after it was discovered that BSA’s provincial manager in the Eastern Cape Phakamile Jacobs had incorrectly tallied one of the score cards.
Miller is now soldiering on as she’s preparing to face off against Zimbabwean Monica Mkandla in an African Boxing Union (ABU) female bantamweight title contest at Vodaworld in Midrand on Saturday, 30 September.
“I will be defending my ABU title even though I don’t know much about Monica. I don’t think I have anything to prove, especially after my last fight. I’m preparing to finish the whole 10 rounds,” Miller said.
The 23-year-old Mkandla is unbeaten in five fights having scored points victories in all of them. And Mkandla goes to the Miller fight following a win over her compatriot Pamela Matunga in July.
Meanwhile, even though she’s content with what she has done so far in her boxing career, Miller harbours no thoughts of fighting against Fortuin ever again.
“There’s no point in fighting her again. I’m really not interested. Why must I do the same thing four times? I beat her on three occasions and I got robbed in all those occasions,” Miller concluded.
She must just move on without always throwing Sharadene’s name around because Sharadene did not score the fight, she did not tamper with the score cards so she must direct her anger to the right people, not Sharadene. If she feels she won then she should have taken the offer we agreed to in Durban where she was offered the highest purse ever for a national title challenger across both genders in the sport.
Quite frankly she did not win the last fight, she was just busy and not effective , throwing 11 punches and scoring with 1 whereas Sharadene was less busy and picking his punches and landing only scoring blows. That is what is confusing her. Melissa never won, I have been very diplomatic but Im tired of having Sharadene’s name thrown around as if she was not also a victim when she was robbed of her title and it was given to Melissa who did not deserve it. I wish her all the best but but she must give Sharadene the respect she deserves and direct her frustration to BSA not Sharadene!