Capetonian Sabelo “Saint” Ngebinyana must consider himself very lucky to have the ludicrous decision against Tanzanian Tony Rashid reversed in his favour to win the African Boxing Union (ABU) junior featherweight belt in Dar-es-Salaam in February.
The reason for the reversal is because that victory in Rashid’s back yard earned Ngebinyana a No 31 spot in the World Boxing Council (WBC) ratings in the junior featherweight division.
Rashid had initially been announced as the winner. But his victory is understood to have brought the ire of WBC vice president Houcine Houchi, the ABU president, who made sure that justice was done.
Houchi's ABU is an affiliate to the Mexico-based WBC, which has since appointed Ngebinyana to face Alan Picasso Romero in an official WBC elimination fight.
Ngebinyana’s 10-rounder against the 33-rated Mexican will take place at the Restaurante Arroyo, Mexico City, on Sunday morning. It will headline a tournament that will be streamed live on DAZN in more than 200 countries.
Ngebinyana, 30, has 11 knockouts in 15 wins against six losses and a draw while 22-year-old Romero who has previously held the WBC Youth and North American Boxing Federation belts is undefeated after 24 fights with 13 knockouts.
It was assumed that the winner between Ngebinyana and Romero would get an automatic top spot in the WBC rankings but Peter Ngatane, who is WBC representative and ratings committee member, emphasised the importance of winning either the ABU or any other WBC sanctioned fight before clarifying the process taken to rank a boxer.
“Champions in those titles are given preferential treatment,” said the former Boxing SA board chairman. “There are two series of elimination fights before a boxer can earn the No 1 spot in WBC ratings.
“The decision to award a boxer the top spot is also decided by the ratings committee, which sits and debates the credentials, quality of opponents and pedigree of a fighter.
“I belong in that committee. Then the draft on ratings gets sent to every member of the board for scrutiny before the final one is done. Once the committee has satisfied itself about your pedigree and capabilities you will be given the go ahead to represent the green and gold WBC belt.”
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