WATCH | BSA dismayed by Mhlongo’s risk to fight even with a disability

Physically challenged former SA middleweight champion Nkululeko “Bull Dog” Mhlongo will risk his life further without Boxing SA’s knowledge tonight.

The 44-year-old veteran takes on 22-year-old German prospect Benjamim “The Bomber” Imeri in a nontitle light heavyweight fight in Albania.

Imeri has 11 KOs’ in 13 wins.

Boxing SA knows nothing about this fight probably because Mhlongo is not licensed with the regulator.

When contacted for a comment, BSA CEO Tsholofelo Lejaka, said: “It is a huge disappointment that we, as Boxing SA, have leant that our former SA champ, Nkululeko Mhlongo, has once gone to Albania to gamble recklessly - much to the detriment, possibly, of his own health and safety.

”We will engage Nkululeko again upon his return to implore him to grow up, to accept the reality that he cannot afford to ruin a reputation that he has built with sweat and blood over such a protracted period.

“He was supposed to retire and enjoy.”

Mhlongo told Sowetan last July that the fight he lost to John “Section 29″ Bopape by an 11th-round knockout in Bloemfontein in 2022, left him physically challenged.

“My right hand side in numb from head to toe and I can’t feel anything, and I am unable to walk,” the crowd pleaser told this writer at the time.

“My right eye is also blind. It all began the night I lost to John Bopape.”

It was a brutal one-sided affair from round five with Bopape showing just how much he wanted the national middleweight title Mhlongo held.

Mhlongo eventually succumbed in round 11 in what was his ninth defeat which was his second brutal knockout loss.

The first was a fifth round demolition by Emmany “The General” Kalombo for the WBF Intercontinental junior middleweight belt in March 2018.

Mhlongo moved up from the junior middleweight class because he ran out of challengers as the reigning champion.

He became the champion in the middleweight class because of his potential. Mhlongo remained a small middleweight fighter.

He now jumps from middleweight to light heavyweights which means he jumped the super middleweight to face Imeri.

Mhlongo must have formal clearance to fight in Albania.

The requirements typically involve a mix of medical evaluations and administrative authorization to ensure the safety and compliance with national and international standards.

It has emerged that it is the sixth-time Mhlongo goes to fight abroad without BSA consent.