With ring officials coming under heavy criticism in recent months, Hlula Dladla from Best By Grace Management is hoping that there will be fair judging during his boxer Nhlakanipho ‘GTI’ Kunene’s fight against Nhlanhla ‘Mount Kilimanjaro’ Tyirha at the Jan Smuts Stadium in KuGompo City on Saturday.
Kunene and Tyirha are set collide in a vacant International Boxing Organisation (IBO) minimumweight title fight, which pits a boxer from KwaZulu-Natal against an Eastern Cape opponent.
“I’m praying that the judging is fair. I’m pretty confident that the belt will be paraded in Dundee on Monday,” Dladla, who’s also doubles up as the boss at Hlula Dladla Boxing Promotions, said.
Dladla added: “We really took time to analyse Tyirha and we know exactly where to capitalise, where to frustrate him. I really believe that it’s gonna be a pretty good fight.”
With Tyirha’s trainer Saligh Dollie having revealed that they know what to expect from Kunene, Dladla has insisted that whatever their spies told them is of no concern to him.
“I’m glad that they took time to analyse our sparring partners. They took time also to analyse the last three fights that our boxer has won. I know their eye for the past six months has always been to try and fight against Kunene. Even the last fight Tyirha won, they wanted to stage it against Kunene. Unfortunately, Kunene was already committed,” Dladla remarked.
Kunene is coming to the Tyirha fight on the back of a World Boxing Federation (WBF) Intercontinental minimumweight title win over Tanzanian southpaw Ally Ngwando in Estcourt last December. – Monwabisi Jimlongo
