Nearly a week after he had become IBO intercontinental heavyweight champion with a unanimous points victory over Polish man-mountain Mariusz Wach, Kevin Lerena was still lapping up congratulatory messages from well-wishers.
Many of those who walked into the Smiths Gym at Cedar Square in Fourways, Johannesburg willed him on to bigger things: “now go for the world title,” they urged.
“I want to become world champion,” the boxer nicknamed “Two Guns” says in our interview at the gym.
We are sitting next to the boxing ring inside which his two children — son Brooklyn, 7, and daughter Ivana, 5, are imitating “daddy” — as they push each other around with their gloves.
“It is the pinnacle — to become the undisputed champion. And I want to do it within two years. So, by the age of 32 I want be heavyweight champion of the world.”
It is an objective many around him believe he can achieve. Trainer Peter Smith has no doubt Lerena is destined to win the title. Ditto for his promoter, Golden Gloves Promotions chief Rodney Berman.
His pregnant wife — having watched him, along with their two children, outgun the veteran Wach at Emperor’s Palace in only his second fight in the heavyweight division — believes that too. His mother supports him too. Yet, while she is delighted at her son’s success in the ring, Lerena’s mom would rather his son was doing something else.
“My mother was very worried about me when I was just a boy because I liked fighting. She’s still worried now even though she’s happy to see me winning. She still tells me to this day that I must get a degree. She tells me I should go and become a doctor.
“I don’t know if I still have the brains to study. Maybe they’ve been shaken up by the punches,” he chuckles.
Lerena’s relationship with his mother is a special one, the 30-year-old having been raised by her after the death of his father when he was still a young boy.
“I was brought up by a single mom. I have an older brother and a sister. My father passed away when I was 12, so from 13 my mom brought me up.”
And he was not an easy boy to bring up, his penchant for fights kept his mother on her toes. She believed that taking him to a good school — KES (King Edward School) would steer her boy away from the dangers of street fights. While it did groom her son into a solid, respectable young man, Kevin continued to get into trouble as his fists did a lot of the talking for him.
“I was fortunate to go to KES, a very competitive school. Being in that environment gave me a competitive drive. I loved training in the boxing gym even though I was not a boxer. But I loved fighting. I got into fights at school and even at socials away from school. But as I got older, I felt like, ‘I don’t want to do this.’ I was 18 when I joined Peter’s gym.”
And so it was that young Lerena’s fighting streak became controlled. “I stopped fighting outside the ring, and I’ve not done that since I joined Peter.”
Being fatherless at an early age, while robbing him of a role model, helped shape a young Lerena into the driven man he now is. “It was hard. Losing a father figure when you are growing up can be devastating through your teenage years. And it was for me.”
Lerena drifts towards the ring and shouts, “Brooklyn, go slowly with her,” as his son looks to be punching his little sister more than he should. He returns to take up the story of the effect his father’s death had on him.
“What it also did was it got me to be hungry because I had to grow up fast. I had to become a man a lot quicker. I think it actually worked as a benefit because it made me hungrier and harder than the other kids. I wanted to be successful and make my mother proud. To make him proud too.”
There can be no doubt he has, Lerena having been world champion at cruiserweight before his graduation to heavyweight, where he aims to add his name alongside those of Gerrie Coetzee and Corrie Sanders as South Africans who have held world titles.
“Of course that is the goal — to win the title. If you don’t see yourself becoming a champion then what are you doing in the sport? I know I have big shoes to fill. Corrie Sanders, Pierre Coetzer and Gerrie Coetzee. Remember Pierre was on the brink of the world title. I have big shoes to fill, but I am looking at getting my own shoes and creating my own legacy. Those guys are legends. But I want to be one too.”
He acknowledges he will always be compared to those who came before him.
“That’s the nature of sports. But that’s why there are eras. And I want to do what I can in my era because when I am retired there will be another era.”
“My desire to do well in boxing came from watching Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson. I felt I wanted to do that. I was still young and not even a boxer, but I found myself wanting to be like those guys. To be on the television. I envisioned that as a 14-year-old but did not really think it would happen.
“But when you work hard it happens. But also, a bit of luck needs to go your way. You can’t reach the top without talent and hard work, but I am blessed to also have a good team in my trainer and promoter. And I also have a good sponsors behind me in Under Armour, Skynet and World Sports Bet, which has helped elevate me to the top quicker.”
Lerena looks to be going to the top of the heavyweight division quickly after dominating the cruiserweight division. With his victory over Wach, there is every reason to believe Lerena could realise his dream of becoming world champion in the sport’s most glamorous, yet hardest division.
As the congratulations for his victory over Wach continue coming in during our interview, son Brooklyn delivers the ultimate accolade. “My dad beat the guy up and I went into the ring,” he beams. Little sister Ivana chimes in: “I didn’t go into the ring because daddy was sweating.”
Lerena better keep avoiding being the one beat up lest he gets bleeding and his little girl flat refuses to go watch him fight. After all, as he says, “they are my motivation.”
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