Another women’s boxing tournament on the cards for Kimberley

PLANS are in motion to host another women's boxing tournament in Kimberley next month.

It was announced that Boxing South Africa and the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture will join forces to sanction the event in the Diamond City. This follows Moroke Boxing Promotions' women’s boxing extravaganza held at the Mittah Seperepere International Convention Centre in February last year.

It was before that tournament a year ago that Sinazo Moroke, the promoter of Moroke Boxing Promotions, said that the objective of the Women’s Boxing Tournament was to identify new boxing talent in the Northern Cape.

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“There are no female boxers from the Northern Cape that will be fighting in this tournament,” Moroke told the DFA in an interview last year. “All the boxers are from outside of the province. Female boxing is not greatly promoted in this province.”

This year, at the announcement, Frances Baard Boxing Organisation secretary Archie Jack said they felt it was high time that women’s boxing received more support and exposure to build on what had been achieved.

“Our aim is to promote women’s boxing, not only boxers but also administrators – women administrators in women's boxing. So, the aim of this tournament is to show the public that women can also participate in boxing,” Jack said in an interview.

“We are really calling upon our women to come and watch the tournament and also encourage their kids to participate in boxing,” he added.

This echoes what was said last year when the MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture in the Northern Cape, Desery Fienies, called on all residents, but on women especially, to show their support for women’s boxing, saying, “We urge residents, especially women in the city, to fill up the convention centre and support our fellow sisters as they make strides in a sport that is identified as a sport for men.”

Despite not being able to host a professional title bout due to financial constraints, organisers say they are quite satisfied with the women boxers who will be participating on the day.

In fact, the main bout, which will be over four rounds, has somewhat of an international flavour with one fighter, Nomsa Ngema, from Johannesburg facing Zimbabwean pugilist Pamela Matunga. Not only that, Jack said that the main supporting bout will also have two Zimbabwean boxers slugging it out in an eight-rounder in the junior bantamweight division.

Jack added that most of the boxers who will be boxing in four-round bouts are from the Western- and Eastern Cape .

He said the aim of boosting female boxing with these tournaments is to have more professional pugilists plying their trade in the near future.

Yet, despite the initiative and positive energy at work getting the tournament going, the financial challenges still weigh heavily on the planning and preparations, with Kimberley’s boxing community still badly under-resourced.

“We don't have stables that we can say ‘these are just professional stables’,” Jack said. “And now the worst part of it is the playing field, which is our (boxing) rings.

“The Federation does not have rings. They used to have rings, but you know that rings come and go, they break. So, they don't have a ring, even for professional bouts.

“They don't even have a professional ring here in the Northern Cape. So, in order for the professionals to host a professional tournament, they need to go and hire out rings from other provinces, which is from Welkom or from Bloemfontein, which is also really a lot of money for the promoter.”

Jack says the plan originally was to host a South African title fight on the day, but due to a lack of funds, they decided to host amateur bouts, and called on the private sector to come on board to support boxing tournaments in a city that could be the breeding ground of young fighters with huge potential.

So, in the interim, Kimberlites could consider that often professional sport is driven by the quest for big prize purses, while amateur sport is driven by pure passion and enthusiasm. All the more reason why residents should make a point of heading down to the Mittah Seperepere International Convention Centre when this tournament kicks off next month.