BSA boss denies board intervention in SA featherweight title saga

Boxing SA chief executive officer Tsholofelo Lejaka has denied that the saga involving SA featherweight champion Lindelani Sibisi’s title defence has been escalated to board-intervention level as the matter continues to rage on with seemingly no end in sight. However, Daily Dispatch has seen the correspondence Lejaka sent to the board detailing the malaise threatening to plunge BSA’s championship policy into disarray. The debacle stems from Duncan Village’s Siyabulela Hem’s challenge to fight for Sibisi’s title by virtue of Hem being a champion in the junior featherweight division.

Hem, voted Sportsman of the Year at the Eastern Cape sports awards at the weekend, wants to be given the first crack at the crown ahead of mandatory challenger Bongani Fule, of Makhanda, now based in Mdantsane. However Fule, supported by Sibisi’s manager Colin Nathan, insists he submitted achallenge form first in August. The two camps apparently stalled over the purse, prompting them to pursue other bouts.

Fule won a close, debatable split decision against Jeff Magagane, handled by Nathan’s friend Bernie Pailman, at East London’s Guild Theatre in November, a month after Sibisi won the IBF international title by beating Indian boxer Keisham Luckysun Singh. In a scathing letter to BSA but not copied to Matiti, Nathan blasted BSA for going with the decision of the sanctioning committee, which he labelled as nonsensical, instead of sticking with Ntlanganiso’s earlier pronouncement The committee approved the fight, citing paragraph 11.5 of the championship policy, which reads: ‘A champion by virtue of his/her status as a champion has the first privilege and opportunity to challenge another standing champion in a different weight division, provided he/she meets all other BSA rules and/or policies applicable to the sanctioning of the championship titles. However, BSA chief operations officerMandla Ntlanganiso vetoed the committee’s decisionin a letter dated January 21, and instead, endorsed Fule’s challenge.

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Ntlanganiso argued that the committee was aware of the decision, only for its chair, Irvin Buhlalu, to deny the claim. After an objection by Matiti to Ntlanganiso’s letter, Buhlalu informed all the parties concerned that Hem would get the first privilege to fight for Sibisi’s title, drawing a retort from Nathan, who insisted his charge would go ahead with the scheduled clash against Fule on March 28 in Escourt.

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