Landile “Man Down” Ngxeke’s accomplishment in winning Boxing SA 2023 Knockout of the Year award has been recognised by his promoter Ayanda Matiti with the noble task of headlining an international tournament he will stage on July 29 to honour Nelson Mandela as a boxer.
Matiti always acknowledges fighters’ successes with that main event status, whether he is celebrating June 16, which marks the commemoration of national Youth Day in SA, or the month of July, which is celebrated as Mandela Month due to his birthday on July 18. That day has since been declared Nelson Mandela International Day.
Last year it was Phumelela “The Truth” Cafu heading Matiti’s seventh such celebratory tournament. Cafu won the WBA Continental junior bantamweight belt in his ninth professional fight.
That encouraged him to defeat fight veteran Jackson “M3” Chauke over 10 rounds. That boxing match, their second, earned the two fighters the 2023 Fight of the Year gong in Durban recently.
The spotlight now falls on Ngxeke – the current SA junior bantamweight holder whose successful dethronement of Athenkosi Dumezweni as the national champ won him the award – will make an attempt to add the WBO Intercontinental title to his collection.
The IBO Intercontinental junior bantamweight champion – who is rated No 15 by the WBC – will make his debut in the bantamweight class against Luciano “Yiyo” Baldor, the 21 year-old Argentinean, who has 18 wins in 21 fights.
Matiti, the BSA 2003 Promoter of the Year award winner, said: “We want to see how Landile fares at bantamweight; he’s big, tall and he is still growing. We wanted to match him with Sikho Nqothole but his people turned us down.
“I then wanted to stage an IBO junior bantamweight title fight and before I could get an opponent, Golden Gloves beat me to the punch by securing that title for Ricardo Malajika.
“I will be rooting for Maljika to win that belt on September 2 (against Kevin Munozj from Argentina) because it might be possible to negotiate a matchup between him and Landile as I get on well with his manager Brian Mitchell and his promoter Rodney Berman.”
Matiti is yet to confirm the venue.
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