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Instead of cutting a cake in celebration of his 41st birthday tomorrow, Jackson “M3″ Chauke will be sweating at a sparring session in preparation for his fight against former three-weight world champ Gideon “Hardcore” Buthelezi in July.
“There is no time for celebrations; in fact I stopped celebrating my birthday when I turned 40 because I lost my world title,” said the man who was dethroned as the IBO world flyweight champion by Ricardo “Magic Man” Malajika in March last year.
“So, ja, tomorrow will be a normal day — I will get up early, go for a run, and will definitely be involved in a sparring session at 11am.”
Chauke can’t take the fight against 39-year-old Buthelezi lightly, simply because the former IBO mini flyweight, junior flyweight and junior bantamweight world champion last fought in 2022.
Their match should prove exciting because both fighters still harbour ambitions of winning more world titles.
“Contracts signed,” said Chauke, whose skills are polished by Damien Durandt.
The non-title bout staged by Aquilla Boxing Promotions will be the first for Chauke in the junior bantamweight division.
The boxer — ring name “M3″ after a high-performance German sedan — said: “The car has high mileage, but its engine still delivers strong power, acceleration, and responsiveness.”
A former SA, WBC international and IBO world flyweight boxing champ, Chauke stunned the fight fraternity in November, matching 25-year-old Ndabezinhle Phiri from Zimbabwe blow-for-blow in their closely contested fight.
Phiri won that bout. Its closeness was confirmed by two judges’ scores of 115-112 and 114-113.
The third judge who scored it 117-110 must have smoked his socks.
That was Chauke’s fourth defeat in 30 fights.
Buthelezi is trained by Keith Rass, who helped him win the WBO Africa bantamweight title after defeating highly respected Namibian Immanuel “Prince” Naidjala in Windhoek in 2014.
Buthelezi has 23 wins from 29 fights.
Meanwhile, 53-year-old Hasim “The Rock” Rahman announced his comeback fight to take place on July 14 in Rochester, New York, against an opponent still to be announced.
A former two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the unified WBC, IBF, IBO and lineal titles, the American last fought in 2014 when he was outpointed over three rounds by Anthony Nansen during the Super 8 heavyweight tournament in New Zealand.
Sowetan
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