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Highly rated by the WBC, WBA, and WBO in the middleweight division, Mapule “Thunder” Ngubane was hoping to celebrate another win in her career during Women’s Month in SA.
Ngubane was meant to fight Nigerian Bolatito “Black Tito” Oluwole for the vacant WBO Africa light-heavyweight belt in Johannesburg on August 13.
But the fight has been cancelled due to visa issues. The reigning SA middleweight champion from Pietermaritzburg was compensated with 10% of her purse money.
But that is not what she wanted — she has missed a chance to shine during a month that celebrates women.
“I wanted to win the title and protect my ranking by other boxing bodies,” said Ngubane, who is rated No 5 by the WBO and WBA and No 7 by the WBC.
A full-time boxer, Ngubane is still hopeful she’ll get to fight before the end of August.
“I wanted to win the title and protect my ranking ...” — Mapule “Thunder” Ngubane
“I want to collect as much money as I can to prepare for my time outside of boxing,” said 38-year-old Ngubane, who has boxed professionally since 2011.
She last fought in March and won a closely contested non-title bout against SA super middleweight champ Wendy Gcado in Mooi River. That was Ngubane’s 15th win in 27 fights.
She began her boxing career under trainer George Khosi in Hillbrow before teaming up with Samson Ndlovu and subsequently Bushy Mabele, Sihle Mathenjwa, and Meli Mkhize.
The boxer, who is now trained by Sizwe Mthembu at eThekwini Gym in Durban, has won the SA middleweight belt twice and also captured the WBA Pan-African title.
Oluwole suffered the first defeat of her career in her 10th fight in September 2024 to New Zealand’s Lani Daniels for the IBF world light-heavyweight title.
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