SA boxers are tough, but they generally lack ring fundamentals. That's the view of American trainer Kenny Adams who will man the corner when Deejay Kriel challenges for the IBF strawweight crown in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Kriel, who grew up in Malvern on the east side of Johannesburg, dropped out of high school to focus on the sport, then last year he relocated to Las Vegas with the help of his sponsors to try to reach his dream.
Adams once had a hand in coaching SA's former junior-welterweight star Jan Bergman. "He [Adams] says all us South Africans are very tough boys, we've got all the talent in the world," Kriel said from his apartment in the gambling capital of the US.
"We've got good ability and stuff, it's just that we need better fundamentals starting up in boxing and our boxing in SA will be much better once that starts."
Kriel fell in love with the sport when he started at the age of 12, bunking school so he could escape to the gym, sometimes slicing through the perimeter fence with side-cutting pliers. He lost his only three amateur fights as well as his professional debut.
Kriel avenged the loss in his second paid bout and now the 23-year-old has a record of 14 wins (six KOs), a loss and a draw.
Champion Carlos Licona of the US, also 23, is 14-0 (two KOs).
Colin Nathan, who trained Kriel in SA, believes the boxer has the basics and more. "[He has] natural ability, [he is] gifted in terms of rhythm and range and timing and eye. He's very special.
"I think he's got very good fundamentals. Good balance, I think he's very talented."
Nathan doesn't agree with Adams's assessment of SA boxers, but points out that US and SA fighters employ different methodologies. "The Americans have a certain style of fighting, while South Africans, we're still kind of searching for our own identity in terms of technical styles."
Kriel, who is always in shape, says he is ready to win. "I've only dreamed of this and it's crazy. It's exciting. I always knew I was going to get to this point.
"I knew I'm going to be a world champion - come the 16th of February I am going to win."
While Kriel, who fights in boxing's lightest division with a limit of 47.63kg, has gone to the US to boost his career, SA champion in the sport's heaviest class, Ruann Visser, travelled the opposite route, starting off in the US with his first five paid bouts before returning home to his parents' holding in Meyerton.
"I'm a farm boy, I missed my family," said 28-year-old Visser, admitting he's still brushing up on his ring fundamentals as he aims to reach the top in two years' time.
Visser, with a 14-1 record, takes on Zimbabwe's 35-year-old Elvis Moyo, 8-5-2, in a non-title battle over 10 rounds at the Time Square casino in Pretoria this afternoon.
Standing 2.09m tall, Visser will enjoy a massive height advantage, but Moyo is unfazed: "He's the most beautiful target I've ever had in front of me. I know I can't miss."
They have two opponents in common - Osborne Machimana and Knife Didier. Visser beat both inside the distance, and Moyo was a points winner.
"I fought Osborne at his best, when he was super fit. Against Visser he was unfit."
Ginger-haired Visser says he doesn't have a quick temper and he has never fought outside the ring.
But the former lock for the Lions under-21 side says a switch goes on when he gets into the ring. "Even playing rugby I was more playing the guys than playing the ball."
Visser met his US trainer, James Ali Bashir, while working as a sparring partner to Wladimir Klitschko in Austria in 2015. In their second session the SA giant caught Klitschko with a straight right to the shoulder
"He told Bashir he never felt somebody hit him so hard with 18-ounce gloves [heavyweights fight with 10-ounce gloves]."
Fighting on the undercard is SA title contender Justice Siliga, who takes on Luke Sutherland in a potentially interesting bout. Visser stopped Sutherland in the sixth round of his last fight; Siliga hasn't fought since 2017 after suffering six cancelled bouts.
After today, Visser's next big fight could be in Switzerland, where he will contest an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency against his acquittal on a 2018 drug charge...