Ron Jackson is one of South Africa’s most experienced and respected boxing historians with one of the biggest boxing collections in the world. His lifelong passion for boxing started as a young boy in 1948 with the rise of Johnny Ralph the South African heavyweight champion who many thought would be the next heavyweight champion […]
Willie Toweel. How do you begin to tell a story of a man that will forever be in your heart that touched your life and that of your family? Actually it is quite simple really because it was true and honest with loads of respect and love. Willie was a sportsman with morals; he never […]
13 October 2021 | There is no doubt that photographs tell a story, especially in the sport of boxing. One of the earliest books with outstanding posed photographs was the Gladiators of the Prize Ring – Heroes of All Nations by Billy Edwards published in 1895. In the introduction the author writes that the illustrations […]
Kevin Lerena makes bold move to heavyweight division. The speculation started when IBO cruiserweight champion, Kevin Lerena’s name appeared at number 25 on Boxrec’s heavyweight world ratings. Technically, his last fight was as a heavyweight since it took place at a catchweight above the cruiserweight limit. It is an open secret that making cruiserweight has […]
Former Olympian and South African champion dies at 49 It has been reported the former Olympian and South African middleweight champion Giovanni Pretorius passed away from the Covid 19 virus at a hospital in Alberton on Monday. He was 49. Born in Johannesburg on 1 January 1972, he was a good amateur and selected together […]
Former South African and Commonwealth super middleweight champion Andre Thysse who fought as a professional from 1999 to 2009 died of the Covid 19 virus on Thursday morning. He was 52. Thysse who was born in Germiston on 24 March 1969 never really looked like a boxer with his long, thin legs, pipe-stem arms and […]
In the days when there were only eight weight divisions in world boxing South Africa’s Don McCorkindale was listed as the No 5 heavyweight by The Ring magazine, which were the only recognised world ratings in boxing, and not like today where there are multiple world boxing organisations listing their own set of ratings and […]
Jan Kies who fought as a professional from 1969 to 1978 and won the South African middleweight title was one of South Africa’s most exciting middleweight fighters in his up and down career. When old timers reminisce about big punchers in the middleweight division, they mention Eddie Thomas, Willie Ludick, Bruce McIntyre and even though […]
History has not been kind to Lodewikus van Vuuren, a good amateur boxer. Nor to George Boer Rodel, a more than useful professional. Actually, they were the same person; a farm boy from the Free State who fought some famous heavyweights before he died in New York, having cut all ties with his family back […]
The search for the perfect boxing glove continues. But great progress has been made, thank goodness, since the day fighters did not wear gloves at all or spiked ones. One of the most notable dates in the development of gloves, and the history of boxing, was September 7, 1892. On the day in New Orleans, […]