By Monwabisi Jimlongo
Boxing veteran Loyiso Lwazi Mtya is a servant of the game who has seen and done it all in the 53 years that he has been involved in the fistic sport.
Mtya from Mount Coke, Qonce, in the Eastern Cape, has been an amateur boxer, professional fighter, trainer, ring announcer, promoter, radio commentator, TV commentator and a boxing administrator. So it’s not far from the mark to say Mtya is a boxing man through and through.
And the former South African junior-middleweight champion is not done yet with the sport. After leaving Boxing South Africa (BSA) five years ago, Mtya returned to the Eastern Cape where he trained boxers at All Winners Boxing Club in Mdantsane, East London.
Former International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-bantamweight and World Boxing Organisation (WBO) bantamweight champion Zolani ‘Last Born’ Tete was among the boxers who benefitted immensely from Mtya’s expertise.
Mtya, who is busy writing a book about South African boxing, swears that he still has a lot to offer to the fistic sport. Actually, Mtya says only death will separate him from boxing, a sport he started participating in when he was only 14 years.
“Boxing is my life. I have been involved in the sport since 1968. What will I be without boxing? I love this sport,” the former school teacher said.
After he hung up his gloves in 1982 having turned professional eight years earlier, Mtya ventured into training boxers and promoting the sport.
After some time, Mtya decided to stick to training boxers before he started commentating on radio and TV until his love of the sport propelled him to the upper echelons of boxing administration in South Africa.
The 66-year-old Mtya started as a publicist at BSA in 2005 and it wasn’t long before he assumed the position of director of operations. And he was acting BSA chief executive officer when he left the organisation to concentrate on training boxers.
“I am a real product of the school of boxing. My whole ring career was covered while I was a student at Mzomhle High School and the University of Fort Hare as well as a teacher at Hlokoma and David Mama High Schools,” Mtya said.
“The decades I have spent working in boxing have given me a sense of great fulfilment. Boxing has taken up a lot of my time and I have sacrificed a lot of things. There are many spaces in my life that could have been filled differently, but boxing took up and left no room for anything else. No boxer has ever gone through this route with such success. I have enjoyed this journey. It has not been without its ups and downs, but given another chance I would take up the gloves and punch all over again.”
During his time at BSA, Mtya engaged in stringent cost-cutting measures and discontinued formerly outsourced programmes. The approach resulted in BSA paying off all its debts inherited from previous administrations and boxing was able to report a profit of more than R2 million after being in the red for a long time.
“Finance management staff were sent to institutions of higher learning in order to improve their capacity as part of the turnaround strategy. The annual South African Boxing Awards were conducted successfully with a budget of R280 000, with assistance from the Department of Sport and Recreation against the R1,6m that was used to deliver same project previously,” he said.
Mtya also introduced what was then called Baby Champs – a programme which proved popular with boxing stakeholders as it produced boxers who went on to become South African champions.
It was Mtya’s skills as a trainer and his vast boxing knowledge, which compelled All Winners Boxing Club manager Mlandeli Tengimfene to rope him while they were preparing Tete to fight against Mexican boxer Juan Carlos Sanchez Junior in Mexico.
Mtya came and his magic helped Tete overcome Sanchez on foreign soil thus opening a way for the Mdantsane-born boxer to challenge for the IBF junior-bantamweight title, which he ultimately won.
“I started working with Bro Loys when everyone in boxing thought Zolani was a spent force and that he would never become a world champion. This was after Zolani had failed to win a world title in three attempts,” Tengimfene, who handles Tete’s business affairs, said.
“I approached Bro Loys and asked him to help us when Zolani was going to fight in an elimination bout against Juan Carlos Sanchez Junior. Bro Loys brought a new dimension to Zolani’s boxing and everyone at All Winners. As a manager, I’m deeply indebted to Bro Loys and will always cherish his boxing ideas. It’s great working with a man of Bro Loys’ calibre.”
Two-time South African champion Khulile Makeba whose career was guided by Mtya from amateur to the professional ranks continues to sing his former mentor’s praises.
“My relationship with Bro Loys goes back to 1990 when I first joined his stable as a young boy. He took me to the 1991 South African amateur championships where I lost in the semi-finals. I won the 1992 South African championships under him,” the former South African minimumweight and bantamweight champion said.
“Bro Loys knew his stuff and he planned properly for every fight. I have never met someone who knows boxing more than Bro Loys. I still believe that I was fortunate to have someone like Bro Loys in my corner.”
Mdantsane-based Makeba is grateful to have met Mtya whom he calls a father figure.
“He taught us a lot about life and had a sense of humour. He was strict, firm and honest with everyone. He hated it when we were out of line because he always wanted the best for his boxers,” Makeba said.
Meanwhile, former South African super-middleweight champion Andre Thysse still regards Mtya as one of the best boxing administrators in the country.
“Loyiso is a boxing man. He understands the sport, he understands the concept of boxing. He used his discretion for the benefit of boxers, promoters and trainers when he was still in office. He was always fair to everyone. He knows his story and boxing is fortunate to have someone like him,” Thysse, a boxers manager who trades under the banner of Real Steel Promotions, said.
