Boxing champ looking for a fight to defend title Dricus-style

Boxing champ Lucky Bokaba, pictured, is looking for a fight and says it’s about time he defended his title.

The boxer walked away with the African Boxing Union (ABU) SADC junior lightweight belt in September, and has been waiting for a fight since.

“I was supposed to fight next week in the super lightweight feather division, but the fight was cancelled.

“At the moment, it’s a bit upside down with the promoters in boxing. It’s because of the changes at the boxing board, which cause many delays in local fights,” he says.

When Bokaba, 32, is not boxing, he works as a coach at the CIT Performance Institute in Pretoria, where he helps develop upcoming young boxers.

“We have a lot of kids boxing at CIT. “Mixed martial arts (MMA) and boxing are good for kids. MMA helps them focus and keeps them off the street and social media,” says Bokaba.

He says MMA is good for anyone, even if they don’t want to compete. “It’s good for fitness, discipline and self-defence,” he adds.

He says aspiring boxers shouldn’t be put off by gym memberships or fees. “If you really want it, holler at me, we can make a plan.” Bokaba says boxing changed his life.

“I was a bully fighting on the street. So a friend came to my house and told my mom they wanted me to do boxing.”

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Dreams of international glory

But it’s hard to describe what boxing means to him. “I get so excited when I fight. Before boxing, I used to hide myself, but boxing chose me.”

He says boxing has evolved since he started it in a North West village. “We used to punch our coach’s bare hands when we sparred. We got gloves, but they didn’t bring us boxing bags.” Bokaba says his biggest dream is to win an international title.

“At the moment, I am an SA champion and I’m rating maybe 100 in the world. I want to fight for the SA title and be ranked under the great 50; let’s start there.

Then I want to go for the international and world titles.” He has set his sights set on O’Shaquie Foster.

“I want his belt,” he says. Bokaba says watching the current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis train has inspired him.

Du Plessis is South Africa’s first UFC champion and is busy preparing to defend his middleweight UFC belt for the first time at UFC 305 against Israel Adesanya in Perth, Australia, in August.

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