Boxing SA will conduct a workshop in Bloemfontein next month with its ring officials, some of whom have been repeatedly and heavily criticised for making dubious decisions.
BSA CEO Tsholofelo Lejaka announced that all ring officials would be attending the workshop.
“So there won’t be any boxing tournaments on that weekend [18-20 June],” he said.
“All of them under one roof. We have put together a team that we are working to prepare for that — Andile Matika, Howard Goldberg, Deon Dwarte, Ben Ncapayi, Toto Shweni and Siya Vabaza.
“We are going to add more females; that’s just the preparatory team.
“We want to look at this thing of ring officiating holistically.”
Lejaka said that the training and rules for incoming officials would be tightened.
But he did not touch on the issue of who will select these officials because this task has been at the mercy of the BSA’s provincial managers.
Lehlohonolo Ramagole, Oupa Lubisi, Mike Dube and Mzoli Tempi all have their favourite individuals.
In spite of their vast experience, some ring officials have dished out decisions that leave much to be desired.
To take a recent example, Snamiso “Dubula Sodubulana” Ntuli from KwaZulu-Natal lost a national super middleweight title in Cape Town on April 18.
Two judges from Cape Town, including a veteran, both scored that fight 116-112 in favour of a visibly beaten Dylan “Bam Bam” Prosser, while another veteran from that part of the country scored the same 12-rounder 117-112 for the visiting boxer.
Sowetan understands that Ntuli’s management lodged a formal complaint with BSA and requested that the fight be reviewed.
Boxing SA’s sanctioning committee, chaired by 1996 Olympian and former SA lightweight boxing champ Irvin “Pretty Boy” Buhlalu, uses an independent panel to review fight footage.
Three independent judges from different provinces were appointed to score the fight.
But the regulator did not divulge the names of those officials who all scored the fight in favour of Ntuli by 115–113 and 118–110 (twice).
This means Ntuli was supposed to have won the vacant national super middleweight belt via unanimous points.
The outcome of the review has no bearing on the initial scoring. Prosser from Cape Town is the champion.
Nothing will happen to those two ring officials because Boxing SA does not have punitive measures in place for such acts.
BSA has ordered a rematch between Prosser and Ntuli, but who will stage that fight?
