Mandla Ntlanganiso's vision for SA to produce quality international boxers again

By Velile Mnyandu
10th January 2024

Newly appointed Boxing South Africa (BSA) Acting CEO Mandla Ntlanganiso says there is an urgent need to address the quality of South African boxers at the international level if the sport in the country is to return to its glory days.

Speaking to the media for the first time, since he returned to the BSA offices last month after he was reinstalled by the newly appointed BSA board, which has since been interdicted, Ntlanganiso outlined his plans to keep BSA running.

Central to all of this, is to keep the SA boxers active and close the gap between local boxers and their international counterparts.

READ: Cape Town Spurs call for the PSL to expel Moroka Swallows

"We have a low activity rate in the country where most of our boxers fight no more than two fights a year or less or none compared to our international counterparts who fight more than four times a year. This is an anomaly that must be changed drastically and we need to develop a fresh program that will allow our boxers to be active,” Ntlanganiso said.

“If you look at the records of our boxers who are competing internationally and compare them with those international boxers, you'll find that our boxer is going for a world title shot with only maybe eight fights. Then the opponent is talking about 20-something fights up to 30-something fights, what is it that other countries are doing differently that we are not doing."

Currently, SA does not have a single credible world champion after Sivenathi Nontshinga lost his IBF junior flyweight title towards the end of last year in Monaco. Ntlanganiso says the scarcity of SA boxers in strategic positions in the international rankings remains a concern.

"Just for an example, analysing the top 15 rankings in all 17 divisions in the country, South Africa currently has only 10 boxers that are rated in the top 15. We didn't even go to the top 10, we looked at the top 15.

“We need to work very hard to make sure that this picture is different. We've got 17 weight divisions apart from the newly introduced division by WBC of the Bridgerweight. Out of those 17 divisions, we only have 10 boxers in the country that are appearing in the top 15, across all divisions. We have to move with speed ladies and gentlemen on this one as time is against us."