Golden Gloves

This is it…the pay-off, the decider and in the words of Golden Gloves Promoter Rodney Berman; “South Africa’s battle of the new-millennium”! Thus follows one of Berman’s colourfully conjured-up labels, as unbeaten 21-year-old challenger Tommy “Tommy Gun” Oosthuizen, who’s unbowed in eleven starts, with eight knockouts, reaches out in an attempt to claim Malawi-born Isaac “The Golden Boy” Chilemba (15-1, with 8 knockouts) IBO world super middleweight title at Emperors Palace this Saturday night (November 6).

Named “DECLARATION OF WAR”, this tournament roster boasts a number of excellent fights, but the ‘needle-match’ between Chilemba and Oosthuizen clearly warrants our keenest analysis! Once former sparring partners, the two antagonists are now bitter rivals and this based on Tommy’s loosely phrased comment that implied the champion’s beautiful manager Jody Solomon’s was in fact his girl friend!

After a near punch-up between the two fighters that was fortuitously averted by former SA super middleweight champion Andre Thysse and Harold Volbrect who hustled the taller Oosthuizen away, there has been no kind words from either principal and the reigning titleholder’s statement at the pre-fight conference that he “never had to train hard for Oosthuizen…but did”, is perhaps indicative of Chilemba’s appraisal of the Tommy Gun’s level of skill.

”Frankly I’ll win this bout rather easily, because he (Oosthuizen) is so predictable and crude” said Chilemba.

The betting fraternity, however, amidst the show-biz spangles of Emperors Palace’s Centre Court, have installed the Boksburg-raised challenger as a slight favourite, though the majority of tipsters, Berman included, envisages the contest going the distance and ending in a “split” decision! “Tommy’s the puncher and certainly the more likely to win the bout on a knockout, but I fancy Isaac’s excellent manoeuvrability will prevent this” said Berman.

The 23-year-old Chilemba is clearly an underrated pugilist and if he’s to be criticized for some pedestrian performances that sees him win bouts convincingly without raising much enthusiasm on the safe side of the ropes, he’s to be congratulated for his instinctive measure of skill that saw former trainer Nick Durandt name him “The Golden Boy”. Moreover, providing the champion does manage to thwart Oosthuizen’s fiery, two-fisted attack and win a decision, which several experts expect him to, it will surely prove that a good measure of talent and mobility still means something in a spectacle that waxes fat of bright lights and bloodshed!