A war of words has erupted between promoter Ayanda Matiti and Boxing SA (BSA) over the use of new ring announcer Siya Taho during his tournament at the Orient Theatre last week.
The event, which drew a full house, featured the eagerly anticipated featherweight clash between Mdantsane hero Macbute Sinyabi and Azinga Fuzile of Duncan Village. Novice Fuzile dethroned Sinyabi when he dropped him three times en route to a lopsided points win.
While the boxers in the tournament provided thrilling bouts, another fight developed concerning the ring announcing when Taho was used instead of Lucky Makeleni. BSA objected to his use on the basis that he had not taken out a licence. But Matiti quickly paid the fee to remove the stumbling block.
The move, however, turned into a contentious issue when BSA disqualified the licence on the basis that it needed to be approved by the board as is the case with all licence applications.
Matiti confirmed that there was misunderstanding regarding the use of Taho.
“What I did not understand is that Siya had been used as the ring announcer in a tournament supervised by BSA Eastern Cape manager Phakamile Jacobs,” he said.
“But all of a sudden they did not want him to do ring announcing in my show, preferring me to find someone else.”
BSA chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka was scathing in his response to the fiasco, saying Matiti used a loophole to force the use of Taho as a ring announcer.
When asked why he was not present at the tournament which was a good advert for boxing, Lejaka said: “I could not be present in an event which had compliant issues.”
There has been a grey area around ring announcing in boxing especially when broadcasters tend to have their preference in order to maximise interest to the watching television audience. This has led to some individuals doing ring announcing without first obtaining a licence from BSA.
Lejaka said BSA had detected the loophole and had decided to have all ring announcers as licensees.
“There was an issue of a ring announcer who made a grave mistake resulting in a world body to be sued. So after that experience we decided to have them under BSA’s wing,” Lejaka said.
Asked if SABCTV’s ring announcer Vusiwe Ngcobo and Phumlani Msibi of SuperSport, who aired last weekend’s tournaments were licensed, Lejaka replied, “‘Yes, they are provisionally licenced.”
Drama as ring announcer put in the spotlight
The event, which drew a full house, featured the eagerly anticipated featherweight clash between Mdantsane hero Macbute Sinyabi and Azinga Fuzile of Duncan Village. Novice Fuzile dethroned Sinyabi when he dropped him three times en route to a lopsided points win.
While the boxers in the tournament provided thrilling bouts, another fight developed concerning the ring announcing when Taho was used instead of Lucky Makeleni. BSA objected to his use on the basis that he had not taken out a licence. But Matiti quickly paid the fee to remove the stumbling block.
The move, however, turned into a contentious issue when BSA disqualified the licence on the basis that it needed to be approved by the board as is the case with all licence applications.
Matiti confirmed that there was misunderstanding regarding the use of Taho.
“What I did not understand is that Siya had been used as the ring announcer in a tournament supervised by BSA Eastern Cape manager Phakamile Jacobs,” he said.
“But all of a sudden they did not want him to do ring announcing in my show, preferring me to find someone else.”
BSA chief executive Tsholofelo Lejaka was scathing in his response to the fiasco, saying Matiti used a loophole to force the use of Taho as a ring announcer.
When asked why he was not present at the tournament which was a good advert for boxing, Lejaka said: “I could not be present in an event which had compliant issues.”
There has been a grey area around ring announcing in boxing especially when broadcasters tend to have their preference in order to maximise interest to the watching television audience. This has led to some individuals doing ring announcing without first obtaining a licence from BSA.
Lejaka said BSA had detected the loophole and had decided to have all ring announcers as licensees.
“There was an issue of a ring announcer who made a grave mistake resulting in a world body to be sued. So after that experience we decided to have them under BSA’s wing,” Lejaka said.
Asked if SABCTV’s ring announcer Vusiwe Ngcobo and Phumlani Msibi of SuperSport, who aired last weekend’s tournaments were licensed, Lejaka replied, “‘Yes, they are provisionally licenced.”
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