10 April 2021 One of South Africa’s better heavyweights, Bennie Knoetze, who fought as a professional from March 1980 to September 1987, was killed in an accident while driving his scooter near Reitz in the Free State on Friday. He was 61. Evidently, he enjoyed the exhilarating feeling of driving his beloved Vespa scooter with […]
Hezekiel ‘King Kong’ Dlamini is best remembered as one of the tragic figures of South African boxing. A powerful, charismatic individual with definite promise as a fighter, he was in fact the first black South African heavyweight to achieve any degree of international exposure (albeit posthumously) due to the musical play based on the legend […]
In any list of all-time great South African fighters there is no doubt that Jake Tuli must be rated as the greatest flyweight of all time. Jake became an overnight sensation when he stopped Teddy Gardner on September 8, 1952 to win the British Empire flyweight title – in his first fight in Britain. Gardner […]
The shortest world champion in boxing history was a South African sporting giant, Baby Jake Matlala, who won four versions of world titles during a 22-year career. The first South African to win four versions of a world title, Jacob Matlala became a legend and a sporting icon. Matlala, only 1.48m tall and weighing at […]
It still rates as one of the supreme moments in the history of SA sport; the night Gerrie Coetzee became heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Boxing’s heavyweight championship has always been considered to be the richest prize in sport. And Coetzee once held at least a portion of that prize. It must be remembered, […]
How many times haven’t you heard someone say, “He could have been great but he wasted his talent”? In the sport of boxing, we’ve come to appreciate the fact that some of the game’s most lavishly gifted athletes were never disciplined enough to fulfill their promise. Not that other sporting codes experienced less frustration. Indeed […]
When I was doing research last year for an article on unbeaten runs in boxing I included Young Stribling at No 20 in the list of fighters with the longest unbeaten run at any time in their career. His run started after his loss to future world light-heavyweight champion Tommy Loughran in May 1927 and […]
Family of professional boxers from South Africa. Pappa Toweel, Jimmy Toweel, Allan Toweel, Vic Toweel, Fraser Toweel, Willie Toweel, Maurice Toweel.
Nkosana ‘ Happy Boy’ Mgxaji Record: 89-9-3 Bouts: 101 Hometown: Mdantsane,East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa Birthplace: Tsolo, Eastern Cape, South Africa Died: 2011-01-27 (Age:61)
Pierre Coetzer Record: 39 – 5 – 0 Active: 1983-1993 Last three bouts – Riddick Bowe, Frank Bruno and George Forman Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa