The death of East London-based Botswana boxer Herbert Nkibiti after a fight in Johannesburg not only left the national boxing community stunned but his trainer unable to comprehend it.
Nkibiti, 36, died of head injuries he suffered in his welterweight clash against Williers Baloyi at Carnival City in Brakpan on Friday.
They were fighting in a tournament organised by Kalakoda Promotions.
Nkibiti went down and was counted out after an action-packed fight over six rounds.
He managed to get back on his feet but remained in a trance-like state as he collapsed as he was helped on the ringside stool in his corner.
The doctors in charge of the fight including Peter Ngatane, who is also a Boxing SA board member, attended to him before deciding to take him to Sunward Park Hospital.
On arrival at the hospital he slipped into a coma and he died hours later.
Manny Fernandez, who trained him for the fight, was with him.
But Nkibiti’s East London trainer Elliot Mjele could still not believe that his protégè was dead.
“I have only seen or heard about it on social media otherwise no one has reported it to me,” Mjele said yesterday.
Mjele had entered into an agreement with the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) where Nkibiti and other boxers were produced. Due to the low standard of boxing in Botswana, Mjele was asked to organise fights for their boxers here and duly took Nkibiti under his wing.
Under Mjele, Nkibiti ran an impressive fight record knocking out almost every opponent at Mdantsane Indoor Arena or Orient Theatre.
“Herbert knew one thing about boxing and that was to fight. When he was trained properly no one could stand in front of him,” Mjele recalled.
The boxer used to live in his house while preparing for a fight in East London before heading back home where he was the most popular boxer.
“Because of his success other boxers from Botswana followed him and I think I had about five of them. But Herbert was the most focused of them all and would play the role of a leader to them guiding them to toe the line. You could tell by his discipline that he was from the army.”
Nkibiti died while plans were in motion to organise a big boxing tournament featuring all Botswana boxers back home.
“We were working with the Botswana government to have this big tournament featuring all their boxers against ours so that their fighters could fight in front of their families and friends. Nkibiti was to be in the main bout,” said Mjele.
Mjele was surprised to learn that Nkibiti had been fighting under Fernandez under whose training he suffered his three defeats in 13 bouts winning all his 10 bouts by knockouts.
Yesterday, Mjele was still trying to contact BDF to ascertain details of the incident and the funeral arrangements.
Kalakoda Promotions promised to assist with funeral costs.
Ring death is devastating
Nkibiti, 36, died of head injuries he suffered in his welterweight clash against Williers Baloyi at Carnival City in Brakpan on Friday.
They were fighting in a tournament organised by Kalakoda Promotions.
Nkibiti went down and was counted out after an action-packed fight over six rounds.
He managed to get back on his feet but remained in a trance-like state as he collapsed as he was helped on the ringside stool in his corner.
The doctors in charge of the fight including Peter Ngatane, who is also a Boxing SA board member, attended to him before deciding to take him to Sunward Park Hospital.
On arrival at the hospital he slipped into a coma and he died hours later.
Manny Fernandez, who trained him for the fight, was with him.
But Nkibiti’s East London trainer Elliot Mjele could still not believe that his protégè was dead.
“I have only seen or heard about it on social media otherwise no one has reported it to me,” Mjele said yesterday.
Mjele had entered into an agreement with the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) where Nkibiti and other boxers were produced. Due to the low standard of boxing in Botswana, Mjele was asked to organise fights for their boxers here and duly took Nkibiti under his wing.
Under Mjele, Nkibiti ran an impressive fight record knocking out almost every opponent at Mdantsane Indoor Arena or Orient Theatre.
“Herbert knew one thing about boxing and that was to fight. When he was trained properly no one could stand in front of him,” Mjele recalled.
The boxer used to live in his house while preparing for a fight in East London before heading back home where he was the most popular boxer.
“Because of his success other boxers from Botswana followed him and I think I had about five of them. But Herbert was the most focused of them all and would play the role of a leader to them guiding them to toe the line. You could tell by his discipline that he was from the army.”
Nkibiti died while plans were in motion to organise a big boxing tournament featuring all Botswana boxers back home.
“We were working with the Botswana government to have this big tournament featuring all their boxers against ours so that their fighters could fight in front of their families and friends. Nkibiti was to be in the main bout,” said Mjele.
Mjele was surprised to learn that Nkibiti had been fighting under Fernandez under whose training he suffered his three defeats in 13 bouts winning all his 10 bouts by knockouts.
Yesterday, Mjele was still trying to contact BDF to ascertain details of the incident and the funeral arrangements.
Kalakoda Promotions promised to assist with funeral costs.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos