Pretoria - The South African National Amateur Boxing Organisation (SANABO) says it is ready for a new Open Boxing League which will be developing and unearthing latent talent in boxing.
Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula, on Friday, announced that a new Open Boxing League, to be run by SANABO, will take a format of an Inter Provincial Series that will be staged in two venues, Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces as a start.
The tournament will be played on a fort-nightly basis, with each venue hosting 18 tournaments culminating in the finals, which will be staged in one venue.
Each province will be required to enter a minimum of 10 male and five female boxers for the Inter Provincial Series.
The department remains the main funder and sponsor of the SANABO Open Boxing League.
Minister Mbalula explained that an amount of R7 million from the allocated funds to SANABO will go towards funding the Open Boxing League, with the department providing additional support and collateral funding over and above the core funding.
“In preparing ourselves for this league, we have thus far trained and qualified 16 one Star AIBA certified officials including referees, judges and ringside officials. It is heartening to note that all provinces have already established their provincial teams and registered the players.
“The league will start mid-August 2016. A Pre-League launch event will be held in August to announce the provincial teams, logos, team names, conduct a draw for fixtures and other related matters to the operation of the league,” the Minister said.
SANABO President Andile Mofu welcomed the news of the Open Boxing League assuring that the organisation is willing, ready and able.
“The league is very important in a sense that as a boxer you need to keep active and when you keep active it means that you’ll be able to achieve a lot given opportunities at international level as well as olympics for example,” said Mofu.
He said that the league is going to focus mainly on boxers that have not been given a chance to represent South Africa in major tournaments.
“It’s going to help the boxers being kept active and the standard of open boxing is going to increase. Open boxing is long overdue and SANABO is ready. People will be witnessing best bouts. The teams are ready for August to rock and roll,” said an ecstatic Mofu.
Support for women’s boxing
On support for women’s boxing, the department announced that, as part of the turnaround strategy for boxing, it will develop, invest and promote women’s boxing.
Boxing South Africa has begun to invest significantly in women’s boxing and the department has also invested in female boxers and bouts.
A special consultative gathering for women in boxing was convened to address the key specific areas that affected the growth of women’s boxing. An all women bout was convened in KwaZulu-Natal recently to mark the important milestone of promoting women in boxing. – SAnews.gov.za
