It’s back to the drawing board for Simamkele Tutsheni after she suffered her first career loss following her defeat by Polish opponent Monika Laura Grzyb at Hala Widowiskowo-Sportowa, Aleja Jana Pawła II 6, Jastrzębie-Zdrój, on Sunday evening.
Tutsheni’s attempt to become a world champion failed as she lost on points to Grzyb in a vacant International Boxing Organisation (IBO) female junior-featherweight title contest. And despite the loss, Tutsheni’s trainer Felix Venganayi is positive about his boxer’s future.
“We lost to an experienced boxer, who’s active in MMA when she’s not boxing. We are not feeling bad about the loss. We will go back to the gym and fix our mistakes. I’m confident that whatever mistakes we had are going to be fixed. Another thing is that we also need to be more active going forward,” Venganayi remarked.
With the 24-year-old Tutsheni, who is a firefighter in Cape Town, having failed to defeat Grzyb, this means that South African female boxers are still searching for their first world title win outside South Africa.
Nozipho Bell from Gqeberha,m in the Eastern Cape tried to win a world title outside South Africa on two occasions. Unfortunately, she lost by an eighth round stoppage to Terri Harper in an IBO female junior-lightweight title in Rotherham, England, in July 2019.
Nine months earlier, Bell lost to Polish boxer Ewa Brodnicka in a World Boxing Organisation (WBO) female junior-lightweight title fight in Lublin, Poland.
And another boxer from Gqeberha, Razell Mohamed was stopped in the fourth round by New Zealander Lani Daniels in New Zealand during an International Boxing Federation (IBF) female heavyweight title fight in August 2023. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
