Rolling with the punches in fight night
The Western Cape provincial title will be the reward for the pugilist who comes out on top in the African Pride Fighting Championships (APFC) Fight Night.
APFC has partnered with Insane boxing for the weekend event at the Sunningdale sports complex.
Emile Brits and Siphenathi Qampi will headline the event and one of the two boxers will end the night with the welterweight belt around their waist and bragging rights of being the provincial champ.
Brits will be competing in his fourth professional fight and will be looking to get back to winning ways after things did not gone his way in Johannesburg in his last outing in July.
The African Pride Fighting Championship-trained Brits, still in the early stages of his promising future in boxing, will be looking to make more inroads that propel him to higher circles of the boxing fraternity.
Qampi will be standing in his way as he will also be looking to get back to winning ways after dropping his last outing in December last year. Qampi trains under Jongi Kamko in Khayelitsha.
The APFC event, one of the few boxing events hosted in the city, features a mixture of pro and amateur fighters as promoters seek to put the Covid-19-enforced lockdowns behind them and get back to the ring action.
It's fair to say that boxing fans, more so in the Cape metropole have been starved of action for the longest time.
APFC's Mike Mouneimne, who also trains Brits, says despite the difficulties that come with staging such a show without sponsorship, boxing in the city and the province needs such an outing.
“It's pretty difficult from a promoter's point of view, we are a self-funded event with no sponsorship. As an organisation we took it upon ourselves to put on a good show and give our amateur fighters and pro fighters in the WC a chance to compete,” said Mouneimne.
With fighters being starved of action, Mouneimne says there was not much difficulty putting together a list of those wanting to compete as opportunities like these hardly come by in the city.
Like in other sporting codes, boxing is no different when it comes to the need for proper development at the amateur level to ensure a good career path.
And lack of action is often the cause of many promising careers falling to the wayside.
Now that the Covid lockdowns are over, one hopes more fight nights would be on the cards for the city.
But funds have been a major issue for most organisations that made losses in the two years of limited sporting action.
“A lot is happening around the country and nothing happening in Cape Town, especially in professional ranks. We have put together a joint venture with Insane boxing to develop amateur and pro talent based on the fact that there are no opportunities,” said Mouneimne.
“We try to develop the amateur side of boxing on a professional stage to fight on to build them going forward. A lot of the guys recently turned pro so this gives hope for their careers moving forward.
“Boxing will be the winner at the end of the day, showcasing good boxing talents and getting people excited for boxing in the WC,” he added.
Some of the supporting bouts will see Abdulaziz Kunert, whose professional record is sitting at a pretty 10-2 win, take on Yamkelo Amos Platji.
Dillion Solomons will be making his fourth professional fight when he takes on Lukhangela Jamjam.
For tickets to the event contact Mouneimne on 082 660 2129.