Golden Gloves

It never takes Golden Gloves Promoter Rodney Berman long to set his sights on new aspirations and goals, and typical of the man, he has already identified five of the fighters under his GGP banner as world champions of the future.

“No doubt about it…we have as many as five potential world beaters under our wing and while young Hekkie “The Hex-ecutioner” Budler will obtain his chance of winning global honours later this month (February 27) at Emperors Palace, others such as Tommy “Tommy Gun” Oosthuizen and Tshifhiwa “The Atomic Spider” Munyai are on the threshold of fighting for world titles” said Berman.

Then too, there are IBO Africa lightweight champion Jason “Badman” Bedeman and WBC Intercontinental light heavyweight king Isaac “The Golden Boy” Chilembe –both young and highly resourceful – who wait in the wings for their big opportunity, which, according to Berman, could in all likelihood come towards the end of this year.

“A lot depends on a boxer’s rate of maturity” said the CEO of GGP. “Budler has obviously been given the chance very early in his career, in fact after just 13 professional bouts, but we wouldn’t be putting him in the ring against the seasoned and highly ranked Juanito Rubillar of the Philippines, if we weren’t confident that he’d win the vacant IBO world junior flyweight title”.

And Oosthuizen and Munyai? “Providing Tommy succeeds in defending his WBA Pan Africa super middleweight title against John Chibuta on February 27, and Munyai does likewise when he puts his WBA Intercontinental bantamweight crown up for grabs against Daniel Ferreras, they will possibly be in line for world championship contests in June this year, though I need to stress that Oosthuizen will first need to fight an IBO  title-eliminator in April” concluded Berman.

Meanwhile, Chilemba will be defending his prestigious WBC Intercontinental light heavyweight title in America during March and a victory on the night will ideally place him in the WBC world championship mix.

However Bedeman at age 20 may have to bide his time awhile longer, and certainly his manager-trainer Manny Fernandes wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Jason is improving in leaps and bounds but there’s still a long road ahead before we seriously contemplate an assault on the crème de la crème of the lightweight division” said Fernandes.