Moruti Mthalane. Picture: SUNDAY WORLD
Moruti “Babyface” Mthalane is set to defend his title within 90 days as mandated by the International Boxing federation (IBF). It looks like the fight is not taking place in South Africa as reported in the past few weeks, unless Boxing South Africa with the sports ministry can focus on the livelihood of boxers and bring this title defence to South Africa instead of focusing on bringing pop stars.
Through some reputable sources we learnt that Mthalane will be defending in Thailand after his handlers called a press conference confirming his defence taking place in KwaZulu-Natal. Fightnews dot com was quoted Wednesday saying “A Purse bid was held today in the IBF Office for the IBF Flyweight Championship mandatory defense between Champion Moruti Mthalane and AmnatRuenroeng.
There was only one bidder, Jimmy’s Boxing and he bid $ 15,000.00. Jimmy has 90 days to put the fight on”. Amnat Ruenroeng currently holds the IBF Pan Pacific champion and is undefeated in 11 fights and 5 KOs and ranked 7 by the IBF. The challenger is the busiest of the two as he has had 4 fights this year already. After all the deductions he will end up with R 60,000 making the record for the lowest legitimate title fight defence this year.
This information comes after we initially learnt that he was due to defend in Italy against Romanian’s Silvio Olteanu that did not show any interest in fighting him. His opponent was later reported to be having an injury. Also last week the KZN government confirmed that they would be hosting a Mthalane title defence in his home province.
The only thing we can confirm for now is that Moruti Mthalane does not have a promoter, and also does not have any credible opponent who is willing to trade blows with him in the ring. His record is still at 31 fights, 29 Wins, 2 losses, and 20 of his wins were by Kos. This little giant last lost a fight back in 2008 against a flamboyant Nonito Donaire.
Even the fight loss was due to a cut on his eye, which led the doctor to stopping the fight. After that loss he has had 6 fights and Six of them he won inside the distance which makes it even harder to get challengers for his title. At the moment he is the only South African currently holding a prestigious title of the big 4. He last stepped into the ring in September 2012 when he stopped Recardo Nunez in 8 rounds.
He is currently the second longest serving current IBF title holder. He won his in November 2009, second to Wladimir Klitschko, who won his in April 2006. Unfortunately he is not the busiest of the champions as he only defended his title 4 times in 5 years. Mthalane is currently ranked 4th by the Ring magazine, and his dream fights at the moment would be against Akira Yaegashi or Juan Francisco Estrada.
