After a bruising battle between their handlers, which may even surpass the real fight in the ring, the highly anticipated rematch between SA mini-flyweight champion Xolisa Magusha and the man he dethroned Siphamandla Baleni is on.
The fight in Peddie on October 14 has been shrouded in uncertainty which unleashed a heated battle between the handlers.
Organised by former boxer Macbute Sinyabi under his MMT Promotions, the bout pitted political and promotional rivals Ayanda Matiti, who guides Baleni’s career, and Teris Ntutu who handles Magusha.
While Sinyabi was hoping the rivalry would spill over into the ring, it nearly floored the fight as Baleni refused to sign the contract due to his dissatisfaction with a number of issues.
“Yes the fight was in danger of being cancelled because the Baleni camp did not want to play ball,” said Sinyabi.
“In fact I had already cancelled it when a new development emerged leading to Baleni to finally sign the contract.”
So fierce were negotiations that Boxing SA was forced to intervene and invite all the parties to a teleconference to resolve the impasse.
Matiti said he was not happy with how Baleni had been treated despite being a mandatory challenger.
“They even came with a contract with a purse without discussing it with us first,” he said.
“We could not accept that because Baleni is a mandatory challenger and he has fought hard for that position.”
Magusha, who trains at the legendary Eyethu Boxing Club, will be making the first defence of the crown to the man he dethroned in December last year.
The Baleni camp has been chasing for a rematch while Magusha was engaging in other bouts such as against Deejay Kriel and Luyanda Ndulani both of whom beat him.
The Baleni camp argued that Magusha should have been stripped of his title when he opted to face Ndulani in a fight originally billed as a title defence but later changed to a ABU title clash after Baleni protested.
The fiasco has since strained the relations between Sinyabi and Matiti who mentored him into being a promoter.
Sinyabi admitted that he had been disappointed by Matiti’s actions which he said were influenced by his refusal to fight in a Ntutu-funded tournament.
“I thought Mr Matiti was my mentor and cared for me but he has now shown me another nasty side. Since he claimed to be my mentor he never assisted me with anything but now he has a problem when other people are helping me.”
Matiti laughed off Sinyabi’s claims, listing a number of times he had come to the former boxer’s rescue. “I do not want to dignify Sinyabi’s accusations with a comment but I can list a number of times I came to his rescue,” he said.
Regardless of the butting of heads, the fight has been rescued and it will be up to the boxers to carry out their camps’ antagonism towards one another.
Sinyabi whose MMT will organise its second tournament in a space of two months has lined up a number of promotional events to market the fight.
This includes a press conference which will coincide with the final weigh-in on Saturday next week.
“I will have to be armed to the teeth at the weigh-in because anything can happen,” Sinyabi chirped...