The kickboxing community on the West Rand had one last opportunity to say goodbye to Nathi ‘Tiger’ Ximba at his memorial service in Krugersdorp on Thursday night.
The Tiger’s funeral was held in KwaZulu-Natal from where he hailed, while the West Rand memorial service was held at the West Rand Bikers Church in Krugersdorp.
Mark Hey, Nathi’s father took the opportunity to tell people about their relationship – first as friends then as father and son, and as coach and student.
He came to me at the age of 14, obviously still a little short ass but with the attitude to fell an elephant,” Hey said jokingly.
He said he met Nathi 11 years ago and they trained on a Sunday afternoon for the first time.
“The boys went home and ten minutes later this little voice came over the gate phone asking if he could come back the next day and show me more of what he could do. He was never a shy boy, even at 14.”
Hey said this started a friendship that became a father-and-son relationship over the next few years.
He made unbelievably lame excuses to come and stay with my family, saying it was too noisy for him to study in Diepsloot. ‘Study’ – yeah.”
What Nathi meant by study was to spend hours on one-on-one pad work, trips to McDonald’s, Virgin Active weight sessions and movies.
“Over the years they got longer and more frequent until he basically moved in.”
Hey said Nathi was not a particularly brilliant junior and as a young pro he was wildly unreliable. He won fights but not very prettily.
The magic moment came when a friend of mine brought over a top Muay Thai trainer from Thailand whom we worked with for about a year. Suddenly all the talent we all knew was there leaped out and we got the makings of the international star he became.”
Hey explained that he and Gomza (one of Hey’s other sons and champion fighter) were with Nathi on the Saturday before the incident happened.
They were busy with a promotional video for their new international promoter friends looking to take Nathi to Los Angeles, Japan and China.
Nathi insisted on a certain song for the promo but Hey said it was not fit for that purpose. On Monday, just two days after the video, Nathi tragically passed away in hospital.
Coincidentally, the song Nathi would have liked to be in the promo was fitting for his memorial video.
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Also read:
The Tiger’s memorial service confirmed
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