Boxing’s Battle of the Bantams Under the Cape Sun


By Sinethemba Mandyoli    19-Feb-2014 18:53 UTC+02:00 1

Main Attraction Helebe v Ngema II: Toto “Gupta plane” Helebe is due to defend his South African Bantamweight title against Cebo “Homicide” Ngema. The fight takes place on Friday, 28 February 2014, in the Cape Sun Hotel. The fight will be Toto Helebe’s second title defence since he captured the title in 2012. Toto Helebe and Cebo Ngema fought in 2012 and Helebe won on points over 6 rounds. Cebo was given his last loss by the 29 year old champion from Guguletu, and is looking for revenge. Toto Helebe and Cebo Ngema both have three losses in their records which includes a loss against Cleutus Mbele. The Champion has not lost a fight since 2007, which means that he is on his Seventh year winning streak and is looking forward to campaigning internationally. The champion is currently ranked 23 in the world by the ring magazine.

battle-of-the-bantams

Helebe and Ngema have 44 percent and 50 percent KO rates respectively. Helebe’s record is now at 13 Fights, 3 losses with 7 Kos, While Cebo has 8 Wins with 3 losses with 6 Kos. In one of their 3 losses they both lost to Cleutus Mbhele.  On average Toto has fought 2 fights per annum while Ngema only fights once in a year giving Toto the edge in terms of being active. On the other hand Cebo Ngema has drawn his last fight even though he is ranked number 1 by boxing South Africa. Cebo “Homicide” Ngema promises to knockout the more versatile champion in his hunting ground of Southern Sun. This fight will definitely be a firecracker when you look at how active Helebe has been in the past year or so. The fact that Ngema fought once last year does not seem to shake him at all, as he last fought to a draw against Mbhele.

The main supporting bout, will be the Western Cape Jr Lightweight vacant title match between Simphiwe “Ntsimbi” Tom and Lwandile “Gucci”Gugushe. Tom has had 15 fights while Gugushe has 11. Simphiwe Tom boasts a 57.14 percent KO percent rate while Gugushe has 36.36 rates under his belt. 8 in 11 of Simphiwe Tom’s wins were via TKO while 4 of Gugushe’s 6 wins were also TKOs. The two boxers are former South African title contenders in different divisions, and they both came short. Both Boxers are now competing for their second fights in the Junior Lightweight division, which Gugushe overweighed in his last fight that he knocked out Mzwamanene Gcayi. Gugushe’s Manager on the other hand promised the fans that the weight would not be a problem in this fight.

Both Tom and Gugushe used to be sparring partners and are friends outside the square cycle, but as both family bread winners and professional athletes they promise the fans a fight of their lives. After his last fight Gugushe redeemed himself by winning a 3rd round TKO against Mzwamanene Gcayi in December, while Tom two weeks later won a 1st round TKO against Unathi Nelani. This means both boxers have mentally recovered from their losses and will be bringing their A games on the night.

Debut: Another interesting fight will be a debuted Sinethemba “Tayler” Bam against Daniel Julies in the featherweight division. Bam is the South African Senior amateur Lightweight champion, while Julies’ record shows that he lost 2 of his 3 fights. One of Julies’ losses was against Bam’s stable mate Mnikelo Ndema. Bam is a 22 year old and was also named the 2012 best Boxer of the South African National Boxing championships. As a cadet Bam also won Silver medals in 2007 and 2008. Amongst his senior honours he also has a Bronze medal in 2010 senior championships, and in 2011 he was the gold medalist. His biggest achievement so far was representing Team South Africa in the All Africa games of 2012 in Algeria.

Undercard: There will also be another four exciting undercards. The hard-hitting Aphiwe Myoyo is fighting against an unknown Mzukisi Mpinda. Another bout will see Ashton Whiteboy making his return against Asanda Butsheke.The fight will be a 4 rounds encounter in the Lightweight division. Both Boxers turned professional in 2011 and Butsheke is a knockout specialist with 2 knockout wins and two knockout losses.  Whiteboy on the other hand lost 4 of his 6fights; with his last fight that he won by a TKO. With all the ingredients of a boxer that comes from a Boxing family his ring movement and pace improved in his last fight. The remaining two matches are jnr Middleweight 4rounds Jimmy Gambindja (DRC) vs Simphiwe Zotho and Bantam 4rounds Ayanda Liwana vs Alexander Gambinya (Zim).

The Promoter of the tournament is Kalakoda Boxing promotions and the tournament will be streamed live via the Skyroomlive network which screened the last title fight involving Toto Helebe against Klass Mboyane. Tickets are available via computicket and prices range from 250 Ringside, 100 Middle tier, and R 50 for the standing audience.



  Comments


  1. Greg Badger says:

    How do I get tickets! Nothing visible on computicket!

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