Promising Truter brothers join Hotbox Gym to get back on track

In a quest to revive his flagging boxing career, 21-year-old junior middleweight Tristan Truter, 21, has left Harold Volbrecht’s Hammer Gym in his hometown of Boksburg and has joined Colin Nathan’s ever-expanding Hotbox Gym in Savoy, Johannesburg.

His younger brother Cayden, 19, a highly promising, unbeaten junior-lightweight and two-time SA amateur champion, who had also been under the tutelage of Volbrecht prior to the Covid-19-induced shutdown in March, will be following his brother to Johannesburg.

The tall, rangy Tristan (11-8-3), who could well take the step up to welterweight, suffered a confidence-shattering second round technical knockout defeat at the hands of Rourke Knapp at Emperor’s Palace on Saturday evening in the Back for Battle third-fourth place showdown, his second loss on the bounce.

Tristan made his professional debut in 2017 after a relatively short 10-fight amateur career, while Cayden (3-0) is still a relative novice, having made his debut in June last year with a first round TKO victory over Thabang Ditshego in Benoni.

Nathan, fondly known as “Nomakanjani” (No matter what in Zulu) in the sport, is the head of MTK Africa and is renowned for training, motivating and managing young fighters and moulding them into the “full package” in a very short space of time.

Among the more notable champions who have passed through his hands more recently are former IBF and WBC International junior-flyweight champion Deejay Kriel, former multiple mini-flyweight and junior flyweight world champion Hekkie Budler, IBF continental and WBC silver featherweight champion Lerato Dlamini and IBF flyweight champion Moruti Mthalane.

National woman’s welterweight champion Hedda Wolmarans is also part of Nathan’s growing stable and was recently signed by the MTK Global consortium, of which MTK Africa is the local continental affiliate.

“Yes, it’s hard to bring a fighter back from a knockout loss, but the kid (Tristan) is young and we have seen over the years that just because a fighter has a few losses, it doesn’t have to destroy his or her career,” Nathan pointed out.

“The age factor for me – taking him on at 21 – is hugely in his favour and he still has a lot of ability and a future in the sport. Both boys have talent, both are incredibly young and I believe they have a great future in the sport.”

When a fighter comes to a trainer at such a young age, Nathan likes to refer to this as the “moulding phase” of his or her career, a sort of “work in progress”.

“Tristan, being a little more advanced in terms of fights, is going to take more time and we have to make certain changes as our relationship develops and we start bonding,” he added.

“The same applies to Cayden. Being so young, at ages 19 and 21, they both still have the ability to adapt and be ‘moulded’. That’s the first step – I’ll see what they have got, work with them and just make subtle changes, but it’s important initially to start building a relationship.”

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