Today in SA sport history: March 19
1956 — Willie Toweel fights friend Hubert Essakow in their ill-fated contest at the Johannesburg city hall. Toweel comes in heavier than his opponent after losing his South African featherweight title on the scales. Essakow, who had fought at lightweight recently, has reduced weight. It’s a tough bout but Toweel wins when he knocks out Essakow in the 11th round. Essakow loses consciousness and dies in hospital three days later. Toweel suffers a breakdown as a result and is haunted by his friend’s death for the rest of his life.
1993 — Ditau Molefyane becomes the first SA boxer to win a marginal world title when he outpoints Australian Ricky Rayner for the vacant WBF junior-lightweight belt in Sydney. The four mainstream organisations were the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO, but the 1990s saw the proliferation of alphabet organisations that found popularity among South African promoters and fighters, notably the WBU and IBO.
1994 — Dingaan Thobela fails to reclaim his WBA lightweight crown from Russian Orzubek Nazarov, again losing on points over 12 rounds, this time at the Carousel casino.
1966 — Kimberley residents raise R1,000 so swimming coach Frank Gray can accompany his world record-breaking star Karen Muir when she competes in Milan later in the month. Rand Daily Mail columnist Paul Irwin had suggested Gray accompany his protégé, and soon a “Send Frank Gray Fund” had become official. The money was raised in five days.
1977 — In one of the bigger mismatches seen in a local ring, heavyweight Gerrie Coetzee blows away former light-heavyweight contender Pierre Fourie in the third round of their bout. It was the only stoppage defeat for Fourie, who failed in four bids for the world light-heavyweight title, twice against American Bob Foster and twice against Victor Galindez of Argentina. Fourie admitted later that he knew he would be outgunned by Coetzee, saying he took the fight for the money. He hung up his gloves after that.
1999 — Sugarboy Malinga, by now 43 years old, is stopped on a 10th round technical knockout to lose the peripheral WBF super-middleweight title to Mads Larsen in Denmark. It was the third occasion Malinga had been a world champion — he had twice owned the WBC crown before — and every time he lost in his first defence.
2004 — Fourteen-year-old amateur golfer Ashleigh Simon, eight shots off the pace, fires a final-round nine-under-par 63 to win the Women’s South African Open against a field of professionals at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington. A week earlier the grade 9 pupil from Holy Rosary Convent won the stroke play and match play titles at the South African Ladies Amateur tournament. Simon won the South African Open again in 2007 and then turned professional.
2016 — Hekkie Budler suffers a shock defeat as he loses his WBA and IBO strawweight titles on points to Byron Rojas of Nicaragua at Emperors Palace. Budler, who had struggled to make the weight, according to trainer Colin Nathan, was making the ninth defence of his IBO belt and the fourth of his WBA belt. Rojas was dethroned in his first defence three months later.
2016 — Thapelo Phora, Ofentse Mogawane, Jon Seeliger and Shaun de Jager combine to run a 3 min 08.45 sec national record in the 4x400m relay at the world indoor championships in Portland, but that wasn’t fast enough to get them into the six-lane final.
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