THE recent appointment of Cape Town- based former boxing official Andrew Smale to represent the WBO in the Africa Zone is set to help expand the chances of the continent?s boxers vying for world titles.
Smale, a respected referee and judge, represents one of the top four world bodies in the world and suddenly the prospects are looking good for South African fighters.
Amidst the proliferation of world bodies, the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO remain the four organisation considered the best in the world. While the IBF and WBC have afforded local fighters a chance to challenge for their titles, others such as the WBA and WBO have been lagging behind, choosing to promote its titles in Asia and Puerto Rico where the WBO is based.
Formerly based in Venezuela, the WBA has since relocated to Panama but that has not change its stance of ignoring South African fighters despite being represented in Africa by world- acclaimed referee Stan Christodoulou.
Christodoulou implored South African promoters to avail their fighters for WBA Pan-African titles which he promised would guarantee them a ranking in the WBA ratings. However the fighters have not yet seen the returns of fighting for the Pan-African titles although Christodoulou would like us to believe that Namibian and current WBA lightweight champion Paulus Moses is the product of such an exercise.
Moses? ascent to stardom, however, was precipitated among others by Don King who is believed to be enjoying a major influence in the WBA.
Smale insists that fighters holding the WBO African crowns are guaranteed a top 15 ratings in the WBO.
?The WBO has embarked on setting up continental titles instead of the old intercontinental titles to ensure that all continents are taken care of,? he said.
Currently the continental route the WBO has taken is popular in Asia where it has the WBO Asian Pacific titles contested mainly by fighters from Philippines, Thailand, Australia and other Far East countries.
This is also the case in Latin American countries such as Mexico, Panama and Colombia who compete for the WBO Latino American title.
There is also North American Boxing Organisation which is an affiliate to the WBO.
By introducing the title for the African continent, Smale says the WBO has catered for the African fighters.
Soon after its launch in the late 1980s, the WBO sought to market itself in every country including South Africa when Dingaan Thobela became its first world champion when he won the lightweight version of the title by beating Mauricio Aceves in 1990.
As the WBO gained worldwide recognition it turned its focus on already known commodities especially when boxing?s ?Golden Boy? Oscar de la Hoya won its title in the junior-lightweight division in 1994.
But the organisation never really entrenched itself in the African continent despite producing one of its best champions ever in Namibian Harry Simon in the 1990s.
Simon held the junior-middleweight and middleweight titles before a car accident cut short his boxing career.
In South Africa Jacob ?Baby Jake? Matlala was another fighter who held its title in the junior-flyweight division before losing the crown to Mdantsane?s Masibulele ?Hawk? Makepula in 2000.
Makepula, who also held the little- regarded WBU crown at the time, inexplicably opted to dump the WBO in the dustbin and chose to remain with the marginal WBU title.
The WBO also tried to get South African fighters to contest for its intercontinental titles and sanctioned the clash between Mdantsane?s Sizwe Sinyabi and Bhisho-born Mlungiseleli Xokoloshe for its mini-flyweight crown also in 2000.
Sinyabi won the title but never defended it.
Smale said defending the intercontinental was proving to be a headache for South African promoters.
?We demand a minimum sanctioning fee for staging African titles and we are hoping these titles will advance the prospects of African fighters to fight for WBO titles,? he said .
Already Smale has approved a WBO Africa lightweight title between two Namibian fighters Martin Haikali and Jatoroora Tjingaveta in Namibia a few weeks ago.
He said Daniel Bruwer and Reuben Groenewald were also scheduled to contest for the vacant WBO African light-heavyweight title on the undercard of the WBF featherweight title clash between Takalani Ndlovu and Oscar Chauke in Secunda.
?The promoter just failed to deposit the sanctioning fee with us, so we cancelled that bout,? he said.
