WBF Honours a Teary-eyed Coetzee in a Fight Card Dubbed ‘Cape Town Heavyweight Explosion’


By Sinethemba Mandyoli    26-Nov-2013 10:40 UTC+02:00
Themba Shicila throws a punch while referee Cliford Mbelu watches.

Themba Shicila throws a punch while referee Cliford Mbelu watches.

Cape Town Heavyweight explosion sees the old bowing out in style while the future of South African boxing enters the continental scene. The two heavyweight cards resembled nothing close to the legendary Coetzee’s fighting style and aggression.

In Cape Town, South Africa, on Friday 22 November Gerrie Coetzee was honoured with a WBF title. He is the fighter that captivated the minds of boxing fans for more than three decades and he received a standing ovation from the crowd while he was honoured on a fun filled Boxing event in the Cape Sun Hotel.

Coetzee, a first South African heavyweight to hold a world title fought in the early 70s and retired in 1997, retired with an impressive record of 40 fights (Won 33 (21 KO) Lost 6, and Drew 1. Coetzee was so overwhelmed by the honour such that he appeared to be shedding tears of joy while thanking the WBF President Mr haward Goldberg and the organisers of the event for the honour.

Main event

On the event there were Professional Bouts of which two of them featured two South African heavyweights. The Fights were under promoted by Kalakoda promotions, which is a Cape Town based Promotions company. The main bout of the evening saw Zimbabwean’s Elvis Moyo winning a Split decision over South Africa’s Osbourne Machinanana. The bout was over 10 rounds for the WBF intercontinental Heavy weight title and Osborne was holding on for dear life while being fed leather by the shorter Zimbabwean. On their first fight the two boxers had a draw and even last Friday the one of the judges scored the fight a draw much to the disapproval of Elvis’s corner.

Main Supporting bout

The main supporting bout of the evening was between the veteran Themba Tshicila and Cape Town based Zimbabwean Felix Vengenayi. The two pugilists were also competing for the coverted WBF Junior Lightweight international title. Their fight also went a full distance with the more experienced Themba Tshicila winning by a split decision. The fight was filled with pace and Felix managed to drop his opponent in the second round in an attempt to show him that he was not intimidated by a fighter that has been on the national scene for two decades.

Themba Tshicila survived a barrage in the early rounds and showed experience and more ring craft in the later rounds. That led to him scoring a knockdown over Felix in the sixth round. Two judges (Edward Marshall and Rassie Erasmus) awarded the fight to Themba Tshicila while one judge (Elroy Marshall) handed the fight to Felix Vengenayi. Now Themba Tshicila’s record is at 26 Wins, lost 11, and 3 draws in his 40 fights. On the other hand he only has 7 of his wins by TKO’s. Felix Vengenayi’s record drops to 8 wins, 4 loses, 0 draw, while 7 of his wins were by Kos.

Undercard bouts

The other much anticipated bout of the evening was the heavyweights between Kevin Lerenaand the DR Congo’s Big Ben Marcell Mulumbain, a non-title fight over 6 rounds. Kevin showed intentions of knocking out his opponent in the earlier rounds while the Congolese had no response for all of his assaults. That particular fight was one sided such that Lerena won by a Majority decision increasing his unbeaten record by 9 fights, 0 loss, 0 draw and 6 knockouts.

Another interesting fight was between Lwandile Gugushe who jumped a weight class from Junior Feather to fight against a highly ranked Mzwamanene Gcayi in the junior lightweight division over 6 rounds. Lwandile showed his intentions in the earlier rounds by digging the body while Mzwamanene Gcayi was on his bycyle trying to avert Gugushe’s pace. On the third round Mwamanene retired in his corner citing that he had had enough. Lwandile Gugushe won by a technical knockout and improved his fight record by 6 Wins, 5 losses, 0 draw and 4 knock outs.

Other results of the evening were filled with knockouts from impressive young Boxers of the evening. The others results were as follows:

Junior Middle Weight Non Title 6 Rounds: Christiano Nodombassy (Angola) W KO 2 AneleMfaze (RSA)

Junior Lightweight Non Title – 6 Rounds:Lwandile Gugushe (RSA) W TKO 3 Manene Ngcayi (RSA)

Lightweight Non Title 4 Rounds: Ashtoney Whiteboy (RSA) W KO 2 Thapelo Ntinitili (RSA)

Bantamweight Non Title 4 Rounds: Mnikelo Ndema (RSA) W KO 1 Phumzile Njongu (RSA)

Middleweight 4 Rounds: Erik Kadazi (DRC) L MD Jimmy Mbanji (DRC).


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