WATCH | Cassper and NaakMusiq do a face-off ahead of their boxing match

While fans are already taking bets on the celebrity boxing match between rapper Cassper Nyovest and musician NaakMusiq, both stars are confident they stand no chance of losing on the night of the event.

As we count down to the event taking place on April 8 in Sun City, TshisaLIVE got a chance to speak to the stars during a press conference at the The Venue Green Park in Sandton, Johannesburg. 

While Cassper has been sharing his training sessions on social media, his opponent has remained mum on his social platforms. At the press conference, NaakMusiq revealed he's been low-key for a reason.

“Cassper is comfortable, he knows what he's doing, he's been doing it for quite some time so we figured it was a great thing. Let us work behind the scenes, create a monster and reveal it on the fight of the night,” the actor revealed.

Meanwhile, for Cassper, the boxing match is part of something bigger.

“I feel like boxing in SA was dead. We had world champions in the country that people don't know about. I felt like if I put my name on it, it would help everybody,” said Cassper.

Cassper also added NaakMusiq was not his first choice for an opponent. However, he loved that NaakMusiq was brave enough to get into the ring for the great impact it would have for the boxing industry in SA that had been in the shadows for a while.

“I genuinely don't like the guys,” Cassper said referring to Kiernan (AKA) and Prince Kaybee, “I feel like they deserve to get a*se whooping. I don't think it will happen but if they do have balls ... let's make it happen.”

“As much as it looks like it's beef or whatever, there's mutual respect ... They believe they are going to win, I hope they have been putting in the work because, trust me, I'm on fire.” Cassper said.

Watch the two celebs face-off below:

Speaking of the sacrifices he's had to make to follow through with the event, Cassper said he had been training for 50 hours a week because at the start, he weighed 117kg and worked tirelessly to get back into shape.

“For me to prepare for this fight I cut off everything. There's people who are mad at me because I haven't spoken to them a lot ... but I was really committed to prepare for the fight. I haven't record a song in three months ... I just stopped everything to concentrate on this.”

Recalling his last boxing match in December 2021 against controversial YouTuber Slik Talk, he said: “I'm always thinking of ways to entertain and create moments in culture. So I've always wanted to do a boxing event and unfortunately the first guy who called me out ended up going to hide somewhere. So then I thought about how I could get it started, so I called out an internet troll.”

On that night NaakMusiq challenging the rapper to a boxing match. 

Cassper says he hopes the fight will go well so that it can be bygones with NaakMusiq as he didn't have a personal vendetta against him. 

“I shared a little prayer saying I hope I don't hurt him too much so that we shake it out, and it's a good moment in history. But at this moment I don't think there's a celebrity who could stand against me. I respect him for still showing up and sticking to his word and creating a moment in culture.”

While NaakMusiq has been trolled on various occasions with speculation that he was afraid to get into the ring as he was not posting his training sessions on social media, the musician and actor said that was part of his strategy. 

“I don't think fear goes hand-in-hand with boxing. You can't accept something of this calibre and fear to follow through,” he said.

He's a sportsman by blood, he says. As a person who frequents the gym, NaakMusiq says he is passionate about sports and he feels great being a part of the initiative as he will be bringing attention to the sport. 

“I've been speaking for many years as to why boxing is not a thing here because we've got some really talented people. This is a brilliant opportunity to put boxing out there ... As a person who has been in fitness for quite some time I know the levels that are in fitness. It got me realising that if I'm not ready on the night, it's going to show ... I've always had my head in the right space no matter what I'm doing.  

“Coming back from a guy who lifts weights, everything used to be really stiff so we had to get that out the way. So once the flexibility came so did everything else.”

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