South Africa's ailing pint-sized boxing legend Baby Jake Matlala missed Thursday's launch of the “Big Little Men” bill testimonial event arranged for him.
Instead, Matlala was in hospital receiving treatment for the pneumonia-related illness which has laid him low in the past three months.
“We hope Baby Jake will be at the ringside on Thursday a week when the six-bout event, which is staged and named in his honour, will take place, but unfortunately he was not well enough to be here with us this afternoon,” Golden Gloves Promoter Rodney Berman said at the launch at the Wanderers club in Johannesburg.
The six-bout “Night of the Little Big Men” tournament will take place at Emperors Palace on January 27 and will be headed by an all-South African IBO junior flyweight title fight between holder Hekkie Budler and Gideon Buthelezi, who is an IBO champion in his own right in the lower minimum weight division.
The fighters are old rivals from their amateur days and although Buthelezi may concede a weight disadvantage of sorts, he will be out to avenge two narrow defeats he suffered against Budler before the fighters joined the paid ranks.
Also on show will be up-and-coming South African heavyweight prodigy Flo Simba, who will try to extend an unbeaten record in eight bouts, including seven knock-outs, against Zimbabwean journeyman Sting Chomunorwa.
Chomunorwa has declared himself teacher against student in the confrontation, but a record of only six wins from 14 bouts suggests that the 27-year-old Zimbabwean is unlikely to emerge as the meaningful opponent needed to test Simba's true worth.
Berman said it was considered appropriate to head the programme with fighters in the weight in which Matlala fought for much of his career.
“And, as testimony of the esteem and stature in which Matlala is held by the South African sporting public, we have already sold 80 per cent of the 1000 seats for the box-and-dine tournament, which will also be televised live on SuperSport,” he said.
Matlala is the four-times holder of an assortment of world titles. – Sapa