Joshua-Pulev fight: Biggest night of SA boxing referee’s life at the Wembley Arena

No matter who they choose to back, hard-core South African boxing fans will have a reason to celebrate on Saturday night when Anthony Joshua squares up to Kubrat Pulev in a highly-anticipated world heavyweight title showdown at the Wembley SSE Arena in London.

Heightened interest locally is due to the fact that an unassuming public servant from Richwood in Cape Town, Deon Dwarte, will be the third man in the ring when the two heavyweights collide.

He will become only the second South African after Stan Christodoulou to referee a world heavyweight title fight (Christodoulou was in charge when James Tillis met Mike Weaver back in 1981).

“I boxed as an amateur when I was younger. The closest you can get without getting hit in the face is refereeing,” quipped Dwarte.

Briton Joshua (23-1-21 knockouts) will put all four of his championship belts on the line (WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO) against the rugged Bulgarian IBF mandatory challenger Pulev (28-1-14), who is on an eight-fight winning spree.

The twice-postponed fight is a must-win one for Joshua, who has been out of the ring for more than a year since he re-captured his titles against Andy Ruiz Jnr in Saudi Arabia and is the pundits’ favourite.

Dangling in front of his nose will also be the prospect of a multi-million dollar two-fight unification deal against WBC champion Tyson Fury, the fight everyone wants.

The quiet-spoken, confident Capetonian admits he’s a bundle of nerves and doesn’t enjoy all the hype – strange one would think for a man who has officiated in more than 1000 fights in his boxing career.

“I like to keep a low profile and do what’s expected of me. I don’t like all the attention. Maybe it’s warranted (the hype), yes, but I just feel uncomfortable with it,” Duarte told The Citizen from London.

Only 1000 fans are permitted to attend the fight due to strict Covid-19 protocols. “I think once I get to the venue, issue the pre-fight instructions, the nerves will be gone,” said Dwarte.

“In general when I referee, I am normally concentrating so intensely, that I hear a little bit, but it doesn’t affect me too much.

“I have done fights in the UK where there were 30 000 screaming fans. In the build-up to the fight it can get to you but once the bell goes, you tend to block that noise out and you focus purely on the fight in front of you.”

Being armed with knowledge of the two combatants in the ring is important, but more often than not, he says he is guided by instinct.

“I normally watch a couple of videos of previous fights, but you can still never tell what’s going to happen in the ring. I try my best to get an understanding of how they fight and take careful note of things like holding and hitting.”

Dwarte said the standard of officiating in South Africa is on an even keel with the rest of the world. “We are often hard and critical of our own officials.

Sure, there are those who don’t quite measure up, but in general, the standard is world-class.”

His message to aspiring boxing officials: “I started at the bottom with development shows for many years. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. There’s nothing special about me, I have just worked hard.”

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