Inspiring a lasting legacy,the world still resonates with Africa’s first-ever heavyweight title fight, Rumble in the Jungle, watched by as many as one billion people worldwide.



As first light crept over Kinshasa’s then Stade du 20 Mai (20th of May Stadium), the air electric and the world watching, Muhammad Ali, poised like a man who held the keys to destiny, prepared to face the undefeated juggernaut George Foreman, both men ready to etch their names into history.



Rumble in the Jungle, as the world would come to call it, was no ordinary boxing match. On October 30, 1974, the President of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Mobutu Sese Seko had invested $10 million to bring the event to Kinshasa, a sum that was almost unthinkable in those days.



It was a visionary bid, meant not just to crown a champion but to spotlight Zaire as a cultural powerhouse.



For Ali and Foreman, the stakes went beyond titles or money. Undefeated in 40 fights, Foreman was the favorite and expected to dominate the night.



“It amazes me that it was 50 years ago and people are still talking about it, and the term rope-a-dope,” Foreman tells Telegraph Sport.



“I’m just happy that I can remember it, period. I have nothing but fond memories, but at the time, I was devastated at the defeat.’’



Ali had a plan, one as cunning as it was unorthodox. Knowing he couldn’t beat Foreman with raw power, he leaned into the ropes and let Foreman punch himself into exhaustion, an audacious tactic that would come to be known as the rope-a-dope.



This strategy wasn’t just a stroke of genius in the ring; it became a legendary lesson in patience, resilience, and mental fortitude. As Nigerian sports analyst Mustapha Shuaib put it, “Ali’s ability to innovate under the stress of a championship fight is a lesson for entrepreneurs today. When you’re backed into a corner, that’s when true creativity is unleashed.”



Promoter Don King, with his uncanny sense for the dramatic, orchestrated the fight with a flair that transformed it into an event of monumental proportions.



King secured $5 million for each fighter, setting a new standard for athlete compensation and possibly laying the foundation for the billion-dollar sports economy we know today. <a></a>



“Don King didn’t just promote a fight; he promoted a vision,” says Shuaib. “He understood that Ali wasn’t just a fighter—he was a global symbol. King packaged the fight as a cultural moment, a clash of personalities and ideals that resonated worldwide.”



The fight was immortalized through the lens of filmmaker Leon Gast, whose Academy Award-winning documentary, When We Were Kings, brought new depth to its narrative. The documentary, featuring insights from cultural icons like Spike Lee and Norman Mailer, framed the match as a cultural and psychological duel, an enduring metaphor for triumph against the odds.



‘’Rumble in the Jungle set the stage for a new era of sports marketing and broadcasting, showing how a well-told sports narrative could captivate the world and draw in global sponsors,’’ says Shuaib.

George Foreman Fighting Muhammed Ali

Fifty Years On, The Fight Between Muhammad Ali And George Foreman In Kinshasa Endures As A Tale Of Tactics And Triumph

Swimming sensation Chad le Clos had planned on returning from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with gold but with the games postponed, he’s for now focusing on family, fitness and his foundation.



For many athletes, the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to 2021 has meant stalled training regimes. South Africa’s 28-year-old Olympic gold medalist swimmer Chad le Clos, at home in the coastal town of Durban while in lockdown in South Africa, says this year, he had hoped to return from the Olympics with another gold medal.



“I planned on hopefully winning a gold medal and coming back home and celebrating with the country. I was planning on doing a lot of great things this year. It is quite sad but I am looking at the bigger picture. There are a lot of things I want to achieve inside and outside of the pool. The Olympics is the biggest goal I will ever have. And hopefully, I can make South Africa proud next year.”



Posing in front of his haul of medals at home in Durban, in a Zoom interview with FORBES AFRICA, Le Clos, who was also one of FORBES AFRICA’s 30 Under 30 list-makers in 2019, says he is waiting to get back into the pool.



“Before the lockdown in South Africa, I was away in Europe training. For the last five weeks, I have not been able to train but I was very lucky to spend time with a family friend on his farm on 36 acres of land with horses and dogs, so I was mostly training outdoors.”



The sports star, who is also recovering from two recent surgeries, says swimming is different from any other sport.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“As a runner or athlete, you can run, but as a swimmer, you need to have that feel of the water. It’s a very different fitness. I am a terrible runner, I can’t run at all. But when I am in the pool, I can be as fit as I can… So focus is important, once you lose that feel, it will take weeks to get back to that fitness.”</blockquote>



Le Clos, who has been swimming competitively from the age of 10 and is a 17-time Commonwealth Games medalist, speaks about the Chad le Clos Foundation and the special projects coming up in the townships also serving underprivileged communities.



How about becoming an entrepreneur at some point, we ask in this interview.



“I don’t want to close any doors. I want to dive into everything head on. Right now, my big focus is the Olympics. I am in a great mental head space. My family is the most important thing and they are safe. Once swimming has firmly shut, I will focus on the next chapter and it will be some sort of business. I have a lot of passion projects like I have said with my foundation&#8230;”



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Le Clos says he has looked up to swimmer Michael Phelps his whole life (and even beat him at the age of 20 by 0.05 seconds at the 2012 Olympics in London in the men’s 200meters butterfly), but the iconic boxer Muhammad Ali is his “ultimate idol”.



“For what he stood for, the greatest boxer of all time, he was the people’s champion. I am not as outspoken as he was, but I have always seen myself too as a people’s champion, I have seen myself swimming for my family, my people and my country. Muhammad Ali is my hero and icon. And my big inspiration outside of the pool.”



During the lockdown, besides “playing a lot of poker with my family and losing”, it has also been a good time to reflect.



“I like to visualize positive things. As a kid, I always visualized success, the Olympics, the gold medal, you create that moment, and let that percolate. The more positives you put out are the positives you will get back. Focus on the positives. During this time, make yourself stronger mentally. You can come out of this stronger, and it will help you going forward.”

Arena Media Marathon

Making South Africa Proud And His Inspiration Outside The Pool

In his autobiography, Andre Agassi states that tennis is the loneliest sport. He’s probably never been engulfed by the solitude of water! The fact is every sport is taxing on different levels, with demands that develop strengths in some areas over others. The common thread that binds us all together is our determination to never give up. To get through my training and competition I use the inspiration I find from people I can relate to, from whom I can draw strength.
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<h4>Passion: Chris, Dudley, Devon and Michael</h4>
One of my favorite movies, Cool Runnings, shows how passion can take the average athlete to an elite level. It’s what gets us up in the early hours, shields us from the non-believers, and inspires others to do what they love. A lack of experience, financial troubles, injury, negative media, and critics around the world did not stop the Jamaican bobsled team. Just as I became a successful swimmer from a landlocked country in Africa: Chris and Dudley Stokes, Devon Harris and Michael White came from a tropical island and competed at the Winter Olympics in 1988. Circumstances can dictate where we end up but if we are truly passionate about something, we can change our destiny.
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<h4>Courage: Jesse Owens</h4>
Every journey begins with an idea but starts with courage. In 1936, racial segregation in the United States was strong and Germany’s dictator, Adolf Hitler, was declaring that white people were superior. The young black American track and field athlete, Jesse Owens, was a champion on the field but marginalized off it. He would sleep in different hotels, travel on separate sections of the bus, and even lost endorsement deals because of the color of his skin. Owens not only had to overcome a rigorous training program but also this discrimination. However, his courage to continue in the face of adversity would turn him into one of the greatest athletes in history. He has been my inspiration ever since my first Olympics in Sydney in 2000, around the same time the political and economic turmoil began in Zimbabwe. Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He helped bridge the racial divide by proving that everyone can be equal, as an athlete he was superior.
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<h4>Commitment: Paula Newby-Fraser</h4>
If you have the courage to take an opportunity, and are passionate and committed, you will succeed. As a female athlete, Newby-Fraser is someone I admire because of her commitment to the most grueling single day race in the world. The Ironman is a 3.8-kilometer swim, 180-kilometer cycle and 42-kilometer run. She competed for Zimbabwe from 1985 to 1996 standing on the World Championship podium 11 years in a row, winning eight gold, one silver and two bronze medals. As the most decorated Ironman athlete in the world, she has proven just how hard we can compete at this level over a long period of time.
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<h4>Focus: Nick Price</h4>
Zimbabwean golfer, Nick Price, is putting on the 18th hole. Everything is intensely quiet. I am part of the millions of people watching from around the world. What is he thinking about, how does he handle the pressure from all those cameras and spectators, how does he handle the pressure within himself? I was young and in awe of ‘Uncle Nick’. Growing up, I used to imagine the same quiet, the same million people watching me, and the same pressure while I stood on the starting block. Before I knew it, I had started clearing my mind from all the clutter. I learned that focus is not about the ‘18th hole’ but about the countless hours you train to develop the trust you need for that short period of clarity. If you can trust your training then you can focus on the present and do what you need to.
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<h4>Positivity: Natalie du Toit</h4>
Natalie du Toit is a swimming champion, legend, remarkable person and a friend. She is a year younger than me so we would often compete against each other. At the age of 14, she had already qualified to compete for South Africa at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. After missing the qualifying times for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she dedicated her training for Athens four years later. But in 2001, on her bike to training early one morning, Du Toit was hit by a car and her leg had to be amputated. I cannot imagine what she went through. This didn’t prevent her from doing what she loved, and a year later Du Toit won gold at the Commonwealth Games. She continued hauling in medals during the Athens, Beijing and London Paralympics. She has since retired but, knowing how demanding our training is and what she had to overcome, Du Toit will always be one of my heroes.
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<h4>Confidence: Muhammad Ali</h4>
All athletes train hard. What separates us at the end of the day is the ability to take a knock, stand up, and still believe that we are stronger than our opponent. Even after he stopped boxing, Ali believed he was the greatest. My admiration for Ali is so strong that I took up boxing as an alternative exercise to swimming. You have to remember to breathe, and block, and hook, and move, and weave, and jab. If you have no confidence going into the fight, or it falters while you’re in there, you’re finished. Ali’s confidence gave him the ability to lead, inspire and teach. He chose to be a good role model. Ali is to sport what Nelson Mandela is to mankind – ‘the Greatest’.
We all have the potential to do extraordinary things and inspire others, but it has to become a way of life. The path to success is not a trend, you need to be a positive and focused person for the commitment required, confident and brave to overcome the inevitable challenges, and passionate to keep enjoying what we do. There are no excuses.

The Idols That Inspire

There is a lucrative global market in memorabilia and sport is king.
In 2004, the baseball bat Babe Ruth used to hit the first ever home run at Yankees Stadium sold for an eye-watering $1.3 million. In 2012, a pair of Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves was bought by casino owner, Lorenzo Fertitta, for $1.1 million. In 2002, the jersey worn by Pele during the 1970 World Cup final sold for $220,850.
According to Craig Trevis and his brother Wayne, the owners of Sandton Stamps &amp; Coins, a memorabilia shop in Johannesburg, to fetch a high price an item must be scarce and in good condition.
Welman Son, the owner of the Fresh Hook Fish and Chips shop in Johannesburg, is curious about a black and white photo he has owned since he was a schoolboy. It is an autographed picture of the Manchester United team that won the league in 1965. It has the signatures of the late and legendary manager Matt Busby, Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law; some of the biggest names in football.
“I went to a Chinese school called Kuo Ting High School, in Johannesburg. During the holidays, my English teacher was going back home to Manchester and I asked if she would be able to get me something from Old Trafford. When I went back to school, she gave me this photograph and the autograph page as well,” he says.
Son is proud of his photo but keeps it in a cupboard.
“I’ve been a football fan, and Manchester United fan, since I was a kid,” says Son.
“I get ragged by supporters of Liverpool, so I put it away to avoid that kind of conflict. But I do boast about it. This was the team that won the European Cup for the first time in 1968.”
Son is reluctant to sell it, regardless of its worth.
“I want to hand it down to my daughter. She’s 26 and has a bit of an interest in football. The day we win, she’ll rejoice with me, and on days we lose, she’ll console me.”
If Son were to sell his prized possession, he might not get as much as he may imagine.
“In 1964/65, because [Manchester United] won the championship, they had a signing session. All the players sat at a long table where they signed the photos and passed them down. There’s no rarity or scarcity in it,” says Craig Trevis.
After a quick search on Google, the Trevis brothers find the same autographed photo on sale on eBay for £250. The photo was also sold by someone else recently for as little as £100.
The key to selling sports memorabilia is finding fans with more passion than sense. Sandton Stamps &amp; Coins sold a framed cricket bat signed by Indian hero, Sachin Tendulkar, for R28,000 (around $2,200). Although the item wasn’t rare – 500 were made – and Tendulkar is still alive, the fan was prepared to pay an unusually large sum for the signature of a player he idolized.
“He wasn’t leaving here without it,” says Craig Trevis.
The Trevis brothers wouldn’t pay much for the Manchester United photo. This matters little to Son and his daughter – for them it is priceless.

The $1 Million That Could Be In Your Cupboard

So, ‘The Fight of the Century’ has come and gone. Normally after a fight of this magnitude, the loser is left wondering what might have been. He has to pick himself up, dust himself off and go back to the drawing board. But, in this case, it was the poor fans that wondered what could have been. Some, especially the non-boxing fans who were caught up in the hype, asked, “Is that it?”
Was that really the fight of the century?
What is a fight of the century anyway? To the hardcore boxing fan, such a fight is one where there are knockouts and knock downs; where there’s blood and tears, where there is drama. Fights that deserve that label are: Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman in 1974; Ali vs Joe Frazier in 1975; Sugar Ray Leonard vs Roberto Duran in 1980; Leonard vs Thomas Hearns in 1981; and Marvin Hagler vs Hearns in 1985.
With the much-awaited Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao fight, it was always going to depend on what the Filipino was going to bring to the table. In other words, it was up to Pacquiao to make or break the fight. As the famous ring announcer, Michael Buffer, said before the fight, “Pacman is going to have to come out like a Tasmanian devil if he hopes to upset Mayweather.” After Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said that his fighter was ready to go 25 rounds, expectation was high, despite many believing the fight happened five years too late. When the fight started, fans were on the edge of their seats. Not because of what was happening in the ring, because of what they hoped could happen.
What was happening was that Pacquiao, a slugger, was trying to outbox a boxer in Mayweather. After 12 not so exciting rounds, Mayweather ran away with a unanimous decision. The result seemed to surprise Pacquiao who said after the fight that he thought he did enough to be awarded a decision. Mayweather will march into his reported 49th and final bout in September still undefeated. When the dust settles, this fight will only be remembered for its financial records. It became the highest selling pay-per-view sporting event of all time with a staggering 5.65 million buys. The previous record in terms of pure sales was the 2007 fight between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya at 2.48 million.
The fight generated well in excess of $400 million, much more than the Super Bowl.
The big question on everybody’s lips is whether there will be a rematch? Given that Pacquiao revealed he fought with an injured shoulder, chances are that a rematch could be on the cards. But it is doubtful that a second fight will generate even half as much interest.
Fans will remember the principle of once bitten twice shy. Simply put, most in the boxing fraternity were left underwhelmed.
<h2>Rich But Disappointing</h2>
The so-called Fight of the Century between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao was indeed the most expensive, but fell short of the high expectations.
“Mayweather did what he usually does – running away from his opponent. I expected a lot from them but they didn’t live up to my expectations. It was not a fight of the century; it could be one of the popular fights in the last 15 years. Mayweather should have knocked out Pacquiao but he fought like a coward,” says Alan Toweel, a boxing trainer in South Africa.
Toweel says what happened in Las Vegas was not good for boxing. He believes the knockout Pacquiaa suffered at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012 finished him.
Ron Jackson, a boxing historian and journalist, agrees the fight was not a classic.
“I thought Pacquiao won the fight. It was very disappointing to see Mayweather running around. At least it could have been a draw,” he says.
A few days after Mayweather won his 48th fight and kept his unbeaten record, the American announced that his next fight will be in September and will be his last. Amir Khan, from Britain, is being touted as his next opponent. But this is yet to be confirmed.
“Hopefully it does happen. If it does, it will be an interesting fight because Khan is very good boxer. I don’t look forward to another Mayweather’s fight. He past his time,” says Toweel.

The $400-Million  Flop Of The Century

It was meant to be a historic first for Africa and women’s professional boxing – it was a flop. On February 3 2007, Gwendolyn O’Neil of Guyana challenged Laila Ali, the daughter of legendary professional boxer Muhammad Ali, for a WBC super-middleweight world title at Emperors Palace, in Johannesburg. To the chagrin of 2,800 spectators, who paid at least $50 a head, with the late Nelson Mandela ringside, Ali pulverized O’Neil in the first round to win with a knockout. The then 30-year-old Ali earned a $522,000 purse and quit the sport.
Many boxing enthusiasts saw the fight as a breakthrough for struggling professional female boxing in South Africa, which started in 2001. But Rodney Berman, the man who put it together, had other thoughts. Berman, the leading promoter in Africa, wanted to fulfil Ali’s wish for his daughter to fight on the continent, like he did in Kinshasa in 1974 in the famous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ with George Foreman. But this was the first and the last female bout under Berman’s Golden Gloves Promotions.
“I won’t do it again; I don’t want to think about seeing two women in the ring bleeding. For me it’s not a sport for women, it is something I think is unfeminine. In my opinion women shouldn’t be boxing. It doesn’t interest me. I can’t watch women taking punishment. They have been trying to encourage it in South Africa but I don’t know why? Laila Ali was different; she was accepted worldwide as something special. She was the only one I was interested in because of her family pedigree,” says Berman.
Top trainer Nick Durandt, of Durandt’s Boxing World, is also not keen on female boxing. Durandt, who trained one woman boxer, says women’s boxing doesn’t make business sense and there’s no big money in it. In 30 years as a trainer, Durandt guided 38 world champions and 97 South African champions.
Eight years after Ali’s bout, South Africa has not even come close to staging another high profile women’s bout.
“It’s not only a South Africa problem, but worldwide. Have you seen a female bout headline a big event?” asks Durandt.
“In general, boxing is in a bad state in South Africa, so women’s boxing is even worse. The unfortunate passing of Phindile Mwelase didn’t do them any favors. If the tragedy of that nature happens early in the existence of sport, many people will surely keep away from it. Women’s boxing is almost non-existent to be honest. Nick Durant would know better,” says Peter Leopeng, a senior boxing analyst.
It is not merely an African story. Female boxers in the United States are migrating in droves to Mexico where the sport is lucrative and growing. New York-based Alicia Ashley was one of the Americans to take her chances in Mexico. In September, Ashley lost her WBC super bantamweight title to the Mexican Jackie Nava. She is still boxing at the age of 48.
In Africa there is a dearth of fights and sponsorship. Many women have quit the sport but those who remain earn peanuts. According to Boxing South Africa, there are fewer than 40 licensed women boxers in the country, with a majority coming from the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Gauteng. Few of these boxers have challenged for world titles – none have won. The names are little known: Sandra Almeida, the country’s first professional boxer; Noni Tenge; Julie Tshabalala; Gabisile Tshabalala and Unathi Myekeni.
It is a dangerous game of risk in the ring. Mwelase, a fairly inexperienced boxer with five professional fights, was knocked unconscious in the sixth of eight rounds in October last year in Pretoria. She died at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital after two weeks in a coma – the first African female boxer to die. The 31-year-old was fighting for $400.
Kenyan Conjestina Achieng was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, Mathare Mental Hospital, but couldn’t pay the bill. The government had to intervene. She was a former middleweight champion and the first Kenyan to fight internationally. In 2004, Achieng beat Uganda’s Fiona Tugume for the vacant WIBF middleweight world title. She would go on to win four world titles under different categories, registering 17 wins and four draws, earning the nickname Hands of Stone.
Despite these difficulties, women’s boxing is not dead, merely struggling.
Stanley Ndlovu, owner of Sir Stan’s Athletics, is a struggling trainer who has not given up on female boxers. Ndlovu became a trainer in the 1970s to keep youth off the streets of Soweto. He trains three professional female boxers in his stable. Among several male champions, Ndlovu guided his own son, Takalani, to the junior IBF featherweight title.
“While there were riots in 1976, we were busy training the youngsters in our gyms. After the hard practise, we sent them home to protect them from the brutality of police in the streets. We saved them from crossfire. The passion I had for boxing from those days I still have this day. Boxing is the same as any other institution. If you are not disciplined, you will face the consequences alone. But I don’t tolerate that with my boxers,” says Ndlovu. Sir Stan’s Athletics is hidden in the heart of a tourist trap in the Maboneng Precinct, in Johannesburg.  Every weekday, Ndlovu nurtures the talent of his students. The late and unfortunate Mwelase turned professional in 2012 under his eye. All Ndlovu’s female students hail from rural areas and are unemployed. They all hope boxing will one day change their lives for the better.
“The mentality of promoters towards lady boxers must change, we won’t despair. Look at the [South African women’s football team], Banyana Banyana, today. No one gave them a chance of making it when they started. Here, I will produce Commonwealth champions,” says Ndlovu.
Still they come, female and proud with gloves on. It is a Friday morning in the gym at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, three young women are punching bags like they hate them. One of them is Cebile Mlotsa, who weighs less than 50 kilograms and has a quick jab.
“I don’t really pay attention to money, but I just want to turn professional and follow my passion. Just because there are two men who decided that it’s not going to work, it doesn’t mean that women should stop boxing. I started with a coach that told me you are getting there. There was no discrimination that I am a girl, they will help you. They were all very supportive,” says Mlotsa, an amateur boxer and engineering graduate.
In 2013, Mlotsa joined the Wits boxing gym because she saw people running around campus looking fit and followed them. After a few days in the gym, she was introduced to boxing. Mlotsa has only two fights in two years.
“I liked the intensity involved in it. You have to prepare and it takes a lot out of you. There are no girls or boys in our gym, we run with the boys, we are sparring with the boys, everyone is a boxer. My mother raised concerns about violence in boxing, but I told her Mandela was a boxer too,” she chuckles.
Hedda Wolmarans is a young promising boxer and sports management student who is turning professional this year. She is unfazed by the penury of the sport she took up in 2012 just to keep fit. Wolmarans is currently the Gauteng amateur champion in the under 69 kilogram division. She fought 13 times under different trainers around Johannesburg but late last year joined reputable trainer Colin Nathan.
“I have what it takes to be a professional. Colin Nathan has warned me it is not going to be easy to get fights because Rodney Berman is not interested in female boxers. It’s going to be hard but that’s a risk I am willing to take. I am not driven by money, I just want to fight and get a South African title. Look at other male South Africa boxers, they still keep their jobs. I fell in love with the sport, it is very difficult, yet addictive. You have to constantly push yourself,” says Wolmarans.  And constantly push the boundaries of the sport for women.

UD16325

Women Should Not  Be Boxing?

It is mid-morning and the bright light of a South African spring shafts through the windows. Outside, the bush birds twitter contentedly in the garden, inside, the whistle and thud of gloves pierce the air of the tiny gym in the suburb of Linden in Johannesburg.
Inside the ropes of the ring, Alan Toweel is having the time of his life behind the training pads; taking the punches to his palms, before wheeling his arms, shoulder high, to force his fighter to bob and weave. It is a work out that gleams with sweat and concentration. It is training to hone the skills and reaction that can make the difference between sweet victory and defeat in a bloody heap.
“People say boxing is dead, I don’t think so,” says Toweel with his broad smile.
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To say Toweel has made a change and taken a risk, late in life, is almost like saying Muhammad Ali was quick on his feet. Six months before spending his days sweating in the ring, Toweel occupied a cozy desk at the South African Revenue Service in Johannesburg, where he was a senior manager with 24 pensionable years of service under his belt. At the time he quit public service, for a life of boxing gloves and punch bags, he was offered an executive position at the age of 47.
“I was told it was a very good job and they were a bit surprised by my decision. I still get phone calls about it now from colleagues who can’t believe it!” he says.
“It is a bit risky, but I am a fitness trainer as well, so it all helps pay the bills. I am probably the only boxing trainer in the country who has a B.Com in finance and a higher diploma in tax.”
It is a tough game to switch to. There are too many titles and vested interests in the boxing world where a canny negotiator is as useful a solid right hook.
“There are too many titles, they should unify them and make it more interesting,” says Toweel.
The financial decision for Toweel to chance it, in the topsy-turvy world of professional boxing, was a split decision on points. Emotionally, to extend the metaphor, it was a first round knockout.
For Toweel, boxing is his working week and his Sunday rest. He is one of the fighting Toweels, the tough Johannesburg family, which produced a string of professional boxers. They include his late uncle, Vic Toweel, the Benoni Atom, a world-class battling bantamweight who won the world title in 1950 and ended up on the cover of The Ring Magazine.
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“He was the best this country has ever produced, he was this country’s only universal and undisputed world champion,” says Toweel.
On the walls above the ring, are pictures telling the story of the gloved Toweels with all their championship belts, knockouts, sweat and glory. As a young man, Toweel did his ring apprenticeship with the gloves and carrying the ice bucket in the corner. His relatives ran a string of professional fighters over decades.
In the ring below, one of Toweel’s new charges is one of many fighters who would give his eye teeth for the accumulated glory of the pictures above. Zolani Marali’s fists are pounding the pads like his life depends upon it and in a funny way, it does.
For months, Toweel has been training Marali for his last shot at greatness against father time and growing odds. If anyone has a claim to being Africa’s Rocky, it is Marali, the fighter who learned to box in his father’s garage in Mdantsane, near East London, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
The light welterweight is ranked fourth in South Africa and 67th in the world with five defeats in 26 professional fights. At the age of 35, Marali is deemed in his last five minutes as a professional boxer. The wiry southpaw, with his quick feet and sharp jab, was once known as “Untouchable”, now the young fighters call him “Old Bones”. Like Rocky, he believes there is at least one more fight in him and that he can defy the critics to be a champion of the people, standing proudly in the limelight, one last time. In any case, he needs two or three more good purses to set himself up after the final bell.
“I want to get enough money to set up my own gym back at home so I can train youngsters and make a living,” says Marali.
Toweel came across Marali at Emperor’s Palace, in Johannesburg , on a night of defeat in 2009. Marali lost to the up-and-coming South Korean, Ji-Hoon Kim, in a technical knockout in the ninth.
“His style was asking for a good right hand, he was fooling around and he got caught. I predicted that night that he would get knocked out. After that, he was written off and lost everything. About a year ago his manager came to me and said no one wanted to train him and months later we began to work together,” says Toweel.
“I want him to win three more fights to set him up for the future. He has got a bit of fuel left in his tank. He is a very determined and disciplined fighter, but he still has a lot to learn.”
On November 3, in Marali’s old stamping ground of East London, this education will be put to the test against what is likely to be a severe examination at the swift hands of Ali ‘Rush Hour’ Funeka, a classy fighter, ranked 41st in the world, who has fought in Las Vegas.
The fight has all the history and needle that makes for interesting boxing.
The two boxers fought their hearts out at Monte Casino in Johannesburg on November 19, 2011 for the vacant WBF light welterweight world title. Funeka won on a split decision.
“I thought he [Marali] won the first fight and I think the re-match in East London will be one of the best fights you will ever see,” says Toweel.
To spice it up even more is backyard rivalry. Marali and Funeka grew up and trained together in Mdantsane. They have been fighting each other since the age of 12.
“It is a bit like one of those kung fu films… You remember, 20 years ago you killed my father, you remember?” laughs Marali.
“Our wives are even friends with each other, but on the night there will be no laughing, just killing.”
Toweel wants to make sure Marali laughs last on his way to comfortable retirement to prove a boxing point on behalf of both of them.
Only the hardest of hearts would deny the Rocky of Africa one last hurrah.
<h4>The Agony of Victory</h4>
It was a story written in blood on an African night of fistic fury. Twenty thousand people screamed victory and millions listened in on radio as the referee raised the right arm of the new world champion, Vic Toweel, at the end of 15 grueling rounds. His battered and swollen face managed a faint smile and even planted a good natured kiss on the cheek of his equally bruised opponent, but inside he must have been in agony.
Toweel was taken from the ring to hospital where surgeons operated on his broken nose and busted ear drum. He was to spend the first week of his two-year reign as champion between the operating table and a hospital bed. It was the painful end to a victory that put the image of the young fighter from Africa on the streets of New York and on the cover of the boxing bible, The Ring.
In only his 14th bout, after a mere 16 months of professional boxing, Toweel had weathered a barrage of punches to reach the pinnacle of his chosen career. He was the new world bantamweight champion and South Africa’s only undisputed and universal title holder. Those were the days, a world away from the current plethora of throwaway alphabet soup titles, when there were eight weight divisions and eight world champions.
It was even sweeter for the Toweel camp that the title was taken from a truly elegant and world-class fighter, Manuel Ortiz, of Corona, California, one of the world’s great bantamweights who notched up 100 victories in 131 fights.
Many argue that Ortiz, then 33, was on his way down as a fighter, when he fought Toweel at Wembley Stadium, in Johannesburg. He had held the world title for more than two years after winning it in 1949, in Honolulu, Hawaii, the home town of Dado Marino.
Certainly, black-and-white film of the fight shows Ortiz oozing confidence as he breezed into the ring in a silk dressing gown looking like he was going for a Martini cocktail instead of a punishing boxing match. When Ortiz realized he was behind on points in the latter rounds he threw everything bar the kitchen sink at Toweel, so it was no easy ride for the new champion.
It was the fruit of years of sweat for the Toweel boxing clan. Toweel, who fought at the London Olympics in 1948, had been boxing with his brothers since the age of nine.
The patriarch of the family, Mike Toweel, who had immigrated to South Africa from Lebanon at the turn of the 20th century, had trained his sons to box in a tin shack at the back of the family home in Benoni in eastern Johannesburg. Each one was to make his mark
in boxing.
Toweel, a former woodcarver, held on to his title until November 15, 1952 when he lost to Australian Jimmy Carruthers at the Rand Stadium in Johannesburg, before 28,000 people. There were attempts at a comeback, but Toweel, who struggled with his weight and breathing problems, caused by his many nose injuries, called it a day after 28 fights, three defeats and one draw. He emigrated in the 1980s and died in Sydney, Australia, in 2008, aged 80, leaving a legacy of grit and determination that made the name of the Benoni Atom.

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