By: Saneliso Mlambo
No child born at the turn of the century will believe that the boxing sport once dominated the big screens in South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal was once a home of boxing.
Back in the days, when boxing was still the talk of the town, the province previously produced big-guns such as Thulani ‘Sugar Boy” Malinga who made history by defeating Nigel Benn in England and became the first South African to win the prestigious World Boxing Council champion in 1996.
Previously, KZN was a well known home of boxing in the country by producing big names in the game. The bout game was once the talk of the day and the second name for the province.
Sadly, the Sport has undergone a downward spiral in the Province during the past 20-years. The Pugilistic Sport in KZN has become a forgotten sport code during recent years.
The lack of weekly tournaments, lack of boxing back to back coverage and the media support might be reasons why the game is slowly declining.
Commenting on the state of boxing in KZN, Zandile Malinga, a boxing promoter and secretary of KZNPBA Professional boxing Association advised people not to misinterpret the current lack of coverage in the boxing sport as the end of the game.
“Boxing in KZN is not a dying sport at all. So much positive has been going on in the game with the help from Department of sports and recreation in KZN.”
“Through the help of provincial government, the boxing industry in KZN is in the safe hands and doing very well.”
The 31-years old owner of the Starline Boxing promotions also highlighted on what the KZN boxing have been doing in the past few months.
“In 2018, working together with the KZN Department of Sports and Recreation we successfully hosted six tournaments in the province . Those tournaments gave us champions in different titles like Junior light weight and IBF to name the few.”
“In the past few years, boxing as a sport in KZN have seen a lot of improvement. A lot has been done to uplift the boxing sport in the province, even the trainers started to work together as a squad to target national and world titles.”
“Boxing is not dying a dying sport, in the past few years the boxing industry faced what is called a black out. The lack of media coverage. Lately boxing is not getting much coverage in South Africa compared to the past years. Back in the days boxing was receiving a lot of media coverage both in television and radio, unlike today.”
she also clarified on why the boxers are relocating to other provinces.
“We call it an exodus of boxing, people must not misinterpret it as a crisis. Athletes are always looking for greener pastures, its a nature of sports.”
Zandile concluded by warning KZN boxing fans not to be shaken by the current situation caused by the lack of media coverage in boxing, she mentioned it as the passing stage faced by the whole South African boxing industry.