Kevin “Two Guns” Lerena and Phumelela “The Truth” must take a leaf out of Nelson Mandela's brainy quotes, especially the one where he said: “I never lose. I either win or learn.”
They lost their boxing matches in England and US, respectively, on the weekend.
Lerena lost by lopsided points to WBC silver heavyweight champion Lawrence Okolie in England on Saturday night.
According to two judges, Lerena did not win even a single round, based on their scoring of 100-90 after 10 rounds, while their colleague scored it 99-91, which suggested that he won one round.
“I hate losing,” said Lerena. The lesson he must have learned is that he is way too small and short for the heavyweights and he should focus on the bridgerweight division where he holds the WBC belt.
It has been proven that Lerena carries enough power to hurt opponents in that weight class, created in 2020 by WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, to cater for small heavyweights.
His countryman, WBO junior-bantamweight holder, Cafu lost the unification bout to WBC and The Ring champion Jesse Rodriguez on Sunday morning in the US. Rodriguez forced a stoppage in the 10th round.
Cafu's management of Colin “Nomakanjani” Nathan must be commended for negotiating such a high-profile fight, which earned Cafu a good purse money.
Cafu should have been prepared in a gym of champions in the US to be inspired. His sponsors could have financed his stay there if they truly believe he is a long-term investment.
Cafu is the only world champion at Nathan's gym and most of his gym mates looked up to him. It is unclear if he was made to sweat blood and tears in sparring sessions.
Mzimasi Mnguni mastered that approach by taking Welcome “Hawk” Ncita to Detroit where he trained in the star-studded Kronk Gym of accomplished mentor Emmanuel Steward even before he won the IBF junior-featherweight belt.
Ncita also spent time in New York under trainer Luther Burgess.
Vuyani “The Beast” Bungu was Ncita's understudy, so he would travel with him. After some time, Mnguni brought here former US Olympian boxing coach Terry “Bubba” Stotts to train both Bungu and Mbulelo “Slayer” Botile at his Eyethu gym in Mdantsane.
Bungu won the same title that was held by Ncita and defended it successfully 13 times, while Botile won the IBF bantamweight and IBF and IBO featherweight belts.
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