South African Boxing Appreciation Thread

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JuliusSeizure

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We had a solid boxing scene in the late 90s up until the mid 2000s. Sadly it all went downhill after that.

Baby Jake (RIP) was an absolute legend. I still remember the action figures of him that were being made back in the day.


Corrie Sanders (RIP) produced one of the biggest upsets in boxing history when he beat Klitschko in 2003.


Phillip Ndou went up against Mayweather and got thrashed but a South African won't even get an opportunity like this these days.

 
I'm completely out of the loop with the current boxing scene locally. I wouldn't be able to tell you even a single title holder.

In the past I used to follow it quite closely. Brian Mitchell was one of my favorites. Very probably the greatest ever SA fighter. Vuyani Bungu was also out of the top drawer. And, through the years, we seemed to produce quality Heavyweights. From the days of Kallie and Gerrie to Coetzer and Du Plooy to Corrie Sanders.
 
The main South African I am following now is Kevin Lerena. Held the IBO world Cruiser title and defended it 5 times before relinquishing it to move up to Heavyweight. Currently ranked 24th in the world according to boxrec. Doubt he would ever beat Usyk but I think he could definitely reach the top 10. As always we do have some world champs in the two lightest divisions, light flyweight and minimum weight. Ayanda Ndulani and Nhlanhla Tyirha.
 
The sport is dead and buried. For me anyway.

I watched Fury's last fight. That was the first fight I've watched in decades. I thought it was a load of rubbish.

Dingaan 'the rose of soweto' Thobela was one of my favourites growing up. Baby Jake another. And then the heavies and we produced some decent ones. Gerrie, Pierre, Corrie, Johnny, Francois Botha. They could go toe to toe with the big guns.

Like Lerena. He is a decent boxer, articulate and multi talented. Believe he trained as a paramedic and is qualified helicopter pilot. Passed matric with distinctions and had a stint playing provincial rugby too.
 
sand_man said:
The sport is dead and buried. For me anyway.

I watched Fury's last fight. That was the first fight I've watched in decades. I thought it was a load of rubbish.

Dingaan 'the rose of soweto' Thobela was one of my favourites growing up. Baby Jake another. And then the heavies and we produced some decent ones. Gerrie, Pierre, Corrie, Johnny, Francois Botha. They could go toe to toe with the big guns.

Like Lerena. He is a decent boxer, articulate and multi talented. Believe he trained as a paramedic and is qualified helicopter pilot. Passed matric with distinctions and had a stint playing provincial rugby too.
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I can confirm the medic and helicopter pilot bit, no idea bout the Rugby. I only recently discovered boxing when a friend took me a few years back to watch a Lerena fight at Emperors palace. Was my first live match. Before that I had never watched one end to end but had seen some video clips of highlights etc. I watch a bit more but am not what I would describe as a deep fan of the sport. I have followed all of Lerena's fights since, and one or two others like Usyk. I am a growing fan of Naoya Inoue but if I watch 5 fights a year its probably a lot, especially since the rate of matches dropped so much due to Covid.
 
www.sowetanlive.co.za

Why Lerena chose boxing over rugby

CRUISERWEIGHT prospect Kevin Lerena loves his boxing so much he turned down a professional rugby contract with the Golden Lions. This mountain of muscle, who is preparing to face hard-punching Paraguayan Javier Corrales next month, has dreamed of ring warfare since he was a teenager, when he...
www.sowetanlive.co.za www.sowetanlive.co.za
 
sand_man said:
The sport is dead and buried. For me anyway.

I watched Fury's last fight. That was the first fight I've watched in decades. I thought it was a load of rubbish.

Dingaan 'the rose of soweto' Thobela was one of my favourites growing up. Baby Jake another. And then the heavies and we produced some decent ones. Gerrie, Pierre, Corrie, Johnny, Francois Botha. They could go toe to toe with the big guns.

Like Lerena. He is a decent boxer, articulate and multi talented. Believe he trained as a paramedic and is qualified helicopter pilot. Passed matric with distinctions and had a stint playing provincial rugby too.
Click to expand...

WTF... Does he look like this?

JS.jpeg
 
SA Boxing Buzz on FB is pretty active - gives a nice (or bad) insight in to the SA boxing scene, regulators, board, skelms and all.

Adding in Laser Ledwaba - the SA hopeful that took on a young Pacman!

EDIT: Seems Laser passed away due to Covid...
Ledwaba died from COVID-19 on 2 July 2021, at age 49

 
shadow_man said:
SA Boxing Buzz on FB is pretty active - gives a nice (or bad) insight in to the SA boxing scene, regulators, board, skelms and all.

Adding in Laser Ledwaba - the SA hopeful that took on a young Pacman!

EDIT: Seems Laser passed away due to Covid...
Ledwaba died from COVID-19 on 2 July 2021, at age 49

Click to expand...

Boxing was far more hardcore back in the day when these guys were at their prime. They fought far more frequently than the guys do today. Today, the boxers fight like once every six months if even that.

The frequency at which they used to fight back in the day probably played a role in why many of them ended up with mental issues and became dysfunctional after retirement.
 
Mdantsane in Eastern Cape was known to be a hotbed of boxing talent and not sure if it still is. I'd guess many of the sporting inclined youth there may now veer towards rugby over boxing due to the rugby success stories from the EC.
 
I watched Kevins fight not too long ago... he passes the eye test.
Would like to see him break into international rankings soon.

He needs some TLC time with Mike Tyson to put some polish on his peek-a-boo. but hes got some good attributes for sure.

 
Chris Van Heerden looked good in his younger days but now looks past it. He may as well retire now and come back to coach in SA. I spoke to him a few years ago and he indicated he wants to come back to SA but not sure if that is still the case. If he stays on now, I can only see him jobbing for up and coming guys with potential.

 
Corrie Sanders wasn't a classy boxer but he packed a lot of power that's why he made Vladimir look very ordinary.

There were a couple boxer who were promising but they seemed to fade into obscurity.
 
Why is it that our heavyweight boxers always look unfit and totally out of shape? Is there some formula I am not aware of? Most had great potential but always look to be huffing and puffing if they failed to finish the fight off in the early rounds. There was a time when Botha looked very good but at some point he also let himself go.
 
TheChamp said:
Corrie Sanders wasn't a classy boxer but he packed a lot of power that's why he made Vladimir look very ordinary.
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It wasn't just the power. Wlad fought a number of big men that could really whack. Mostly, he handled them with ease. But in addition to the power, Corrie also had tremendous hand speed for a Heavyweight, and was a southpaw to boot. His money punch- the ultra quick left off the lefty stance completely befuddled Klitschko. He had no answer for it and was obliterated.

The same punch almost worked against his brother (Vitali) in the first round of his fight with Sanders. Huge difference there was the older brother had a tremendous chin and Corrie was not exactly in great shape before being worn down and stopped.
 
TheChamp said:
Corrie Sanders wasn't a classy boxer but he packed a lot of power that's why he made Vladimir look very ordinary.

There were a couple boxer who were promising but they seemed to fade into obscurity.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I think Sanders got lucky, it happens once every blue moon. It was comparable to that Mexican guy Ruiz knocking out Anthony Joshua a few years ago. I don't even think that guy expected to win because he came into the re match very out of shape. I was surprised he didn't get knocked out.
 
JuliusSeizure said:
To be honest, I think Sanders got lucky, it happens once every blue moon. It was comparable to that Mexican guy Ruiz knocking out Anthony Joshua a few years ago. I don't even think that guy expected to win because he came into the re match very out of shape. I was surprised he didn't get knocked out.
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Yeah, I was honestly never convinced of him, but there were many good heavyweight boxers back then, I was very ashamed seeing videos of Deontay Wilder swinging wildly like a drunk then realising that he is apparently the next big thing, I tend to agree with the others, boxing globally is suffering
 
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