In a major coup for his stable, Colin ‘Nomakanjani’ Nathan has added South African and IBF International junior-bantamweight champion Phumelela “The Truth” Cafu to the list of boxers under his wing.
Duncan Village-born Cafu, who is highly rated in boxing circles, was contracted to Sibongile Matiti-Mpofu’s Zbashy Promotions until Saturday, 15 June.
“Yes, it’s true, I’ve joined Nomakanjani. I’ve always wanted to be trained by him even before I turned professional. I want to become a world champion and I believe with Colin, I can achieve my dream,” Cafu said.
Nathan remarked: “He is the best junior-bantamweight in South Africa, no doubt and is so young and so talented, I don’t even think he is his prime yet. His promotional contract ends on the 15th of June with his promoter, and that basically means it’s a situation of ‘locus standi’ with regards to that promotion.”
“When Cafu started talking to me, he was clear that he wanted to come up to Johannesburg and train up here with me and be managed by my company. I had a meeting with one of my partners, Larry (Wainstein), and we discussed Cafu joining Boxing 5 and NO DOUBT Management. It was really a no-brainer.”
The 25-year-old Cafu is rated 11th by the World Boxing Council (WBC), seventh by the World Boxing Association (WBA), fourth in the IBF ratings and is position three in the World Boxing Organisation (WBO).
“The plan is to obviously secure him a world title shot. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens after July 7th when Fernando Martinez and Kazuto Ioka unify for the IBF and WBO titles. Not letting anything out of the bag, but I’ve got something up my sleeve. I only speak the truth to my fighters I get behind because I always want the best for them,” Nathan remarked.
