Golden Gloves

Isaac ‘The Golden Boy” Chilemba’s IBO super middleweight title winnning effort against Australia’s Michael Bolling on Saturday night at Emperors Palace served to both confirm and dispel several suppositions regarding the Malawian boxer. Though Chilemba posted a one-sided shut-out over an opponent who arrived in South Africa with impeccable credentials (12-0, with 10 knockouts), thereby taking his own slate to 15-1, the lanky Golden Boy had the displeasure of later being informed that scores of fans had left the arena while his championship bout was still in progress.One suspicion confirmed: The 23-year-old Chilemba is no punch-a-minute thrill-fetcher and while his boxing acumen is of an exceptionally high standard the chances of him drawing spectators like moths to a flame are minimal at best.

On the plus side, however, Mr Chilemba has a trusted mandible that withstood the best shots that the left-handed Bolling could muster and never appeared uncomfortable being belted on the button. One supposition decimated: Chilemba can take it and he appears to have the ‘ticker’ to boot.
Make no mistake the fiery Bolling was certainly no mail order job and Chilemba stuck dutifully to his task, handling his fiery adversary’s frontal assaults with commendable courage. The unanimous scorecards said it all and though some acolytes may have felt disappointed that there were no moments of sheer exhilliration, one has only to think back on other local stars who hardly charged the guns to obtain dividends.

The late great Pierre Fourie could never be mistaken for a knockout artist and for most of his illustrious career was never a box-office magnet. That part of his image only improved after he had manfully stayed 15 rounds with the great world light heavyweight champion Bob Foster in New Mexico during 1973.

The same could be said of Vuyani “The Beast” Bungu, who despite recording 13 successful defences of the IBF world junior featherweight crown could hardly be depended upon to get the turnstiles ticking.

Why, even South Africa’s consensus choice as greatest  “Pound for Pound Fighter of the 20th Century” Brian Mitchell was never a dependable drawcard and it says much for the man, who became known internationally as “The Road Warrior”, that his level of achievements made him an imperishable hero. Trading punches during the dark years of political isolation was never easy for Mitchell and yet through his remarable efforts as a WBA and IBF world junior lightweight champion, he was eventually elevated into a national hero and two-time Hall of Famer.

Getting back to the Golden Boy. Stock-in-trade weapons young Isaac Chilemba clearly has and while it’s extremely doubtful whether he’ll ever ignite fans the way sure-fire drawcards like Charlie Weir and Kallie KNoetze did, he does have an abundance of talent and the knowledge that he can compete comfortably in two weight divisions; super middleweight and light heavyweight. A potentially explosive IBO super middleweight title defence against Tommy “Tommy Gun” Oosthuizen may be just what’s needed to bring out the best in the genial Chilemba. I’d say.