Almeida’s fists of fury can rewrite history books

Local female boxer Sandra Almeida is determined to make history this weekend by becoming the first white female boxer to win an SA title.

The 32-year-old lass will challenge Nomandithini Ndyambo for the SA female welterweight crown at Mdantsane Indoor Centre on Sunday in a Sijuta tournament.

Almeida has come full circle in a modest career spanning seven years which started off on a wrong-footing when she sneaked out of the country to take a professional boxing licence in New Zealand in 2007.

This was when professional female boxing was not yet legalised in this country.

But Almeida was so determined to fight professionally that she agreed to take a licence in New Zealand where she lost to Daniella Smith on points.

While she, in essence, became the first female boxer in the country to fight professionally, her history-making feat was tainted as Boxing SA labelled her a rebel and even summoned her into a disciplinary hearing.

But after an up-and-down career which saw her even relocating to Johannesburg, Almeida has returned home and now seems to have shed her bad girl image since joining Downtown gymnasium.

This was evident in her first fight under the new management when she scored a second round stoppage of Zizipho Khoza in East London this past June.

The win has earned her a shot at Ndyambo’s crown which she is confident of winning.

“Sandra will become the first white female boxer in the country to win an SA title this weekend, no doubt about it,” said her trainer Vido Madikane.

Almeida is one of few boxers who remained with Downtown when the gymnasium experienced an exodus of boxers recently.

She has every reason to remain in the gym that changed her boxing make-up including helping her to shed weight from super-middleweight down to the welterweight division.

And with her record showing four losses, many of which should not have been, in 10 bouts, Almeida knows that her future is in her hands to make the best of the opportunity and make up for all the wrong choices she made in the past.

For instance, when she left East London to join Manny Fernandez she lost her boxing passion leading to some of the losses in her fight record.

Now she is not only a boxer for herself but for her son as she has since become a mom.

“Sandra knows what is expected of her now,” Madikane continues.

But she will be against a tough customer in Ndyambo who is also fighting to defeat the life of squalor.

Hailing from Nompumelelo informal settlement, which is famous for producing music sensation Zahara, Ndyambo, who has lost just once – a defeat she avenged in six bouts – is punching for a better life and will be unlikely to hand over her crown on a silver platter.