Mabuza deserves to be honoured with SA's top award
December 29, 2004 Edition 1
Bongani Magasela
Johannesburg: If fair is fair, Silence Mabuza must win Boxing SA's Boxer of 2004 Award.
The three other nominees for the award are Simphiwe Joyi, Mzonke Fana and Isaac Hlatshwayo.
The ceremony will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton on January 28.
Mabuza holds the lowly regarded IBO bantamweight belt. But the charismatic prize fighter has the ability and the potential to become a superstar.
He took over from Phillip "Time Bomb" Ndou whose poor health forced him to retire this year.
Mabuza boasts five defences of the IBO belt he won in a sixth round stoppage of Jose Sanjuanelo in 2002. He is yet to taste defeat after 17 fights. The former Olympian, who turned professional in November 1999, has chalked down 15 knockouts.
Trained by Nick Durandt, Mabuza ended last year with a thrill-a-minute victory over Filipino Eric Barcelona in Brakpan.
The visitor gave Mabuza a torrid time, and if Barcelona was in the ring with a lesser skilled boxer the IBO title would have exchanged hands. However, Mabuza's tenacity and general ringship proved too much for Barcelona.
Of his rivals for the award, Joyi holds the local mini flyweight belt, while Fana and Hlatshwayo are former SA junior lightweight and lightweight holders respectively.
Fana stopped Sebastian Paz over six rounds in February and outpointed Rand Suico over 12 rounds in May.
Meanwhile, Hlatshwayo beat Samuel in February, Patrick Malinga in April and Phillip Ndou in May.
But Hlatshwayo's eighth round stoppage win over Patrick Malinga will not count because Malinga tested positive for anabolic steroids.
Fana may have defeated Suico while Hlatshwayo outpointed Ndou, but the two former champions were not outstanding in those fights. In fact, Fana's win against Suico is debatable.
