Moruti Mthalane, who celebrated his 40th birthday on 6 October this year and had his last fight on 2 October in Pietermaritzburg, with a 10-round point’s decision win over Filipino Diomel Diacos, has announced his retirement from the ring after an illustrious 22-year career.
Mthalane, who compiled a record of 40 wins, three losses and 26 wins inside the distance, has a strong claim to being the greatest South African flyweight of all-time.
He is one of South Africa’s most decorated fighters and has won the IBF flyweight belt on two occasions, and also held the IBO flyweight belt.
Born on October 6, 1982, he made his pro debut on December 19, 2000, scoring a third-round stoppage win over Wiseman Mnguni at The Arena in Durban.
Very little is known about his amateur career and it has been reported that he only won 35 of 70 fights.
However, despite this poor start to his boxing career, he has developed into a compact, all-round, solid fighter, winning the South African, WBC International, and IBF International belts to add to his three world titles.
After his winning debut in 2000, he went undefeated in his next 13 fights before suffering the first loss in his professional career, on September 24, 2004, against Nkqubela Gwazela in a clash for the WBC International and South African flyweight titles at the Graceland Hotel Casino in Secunda.
Mthalane was well ahead going into the 10th round before Gwazela caught him with a barrage of punches and referee Alfred Buqwana stopped the fight at two minutes 35 seconds into the round.
After this setback, he won his next three fights before scoring a sixth-round stoppage win over Akhona Aliva on August 1, 2006 in East London to take the South African flyweight title.
He made two successful defences of the South African flyweight title before winning the WBC International flyweight title with a first-round stoppage win over Apol Suico.
After two wins in 2008 against Joel Kunene (retained SA flyweight title) and Hussein Hussein (IBF flyweight title eliminator), he challenged Filipino Nonito Donaire for the IBF and IBO flyweight belts in Las Vegas.
Donaire, known as the “Filipino Flash”, who was 19-1 at the time, was considered one of the best flyweights in the world.
After a slow start, Mthalane picked up the pace and was holding his own before a punch from Donaire opened a cut on his eyelid in the sixth round
On advice from the ringside doctor, the referee stopped the fight at one minute 31 seconds into the round and Donaire took the decision with scores of 48-47 and 49-46 twice.
Mthalane’s trainer at the time, Nick Durandt, was very upset as he felt that he could have stopped the bleeding and treated the cut at the end of the round.
Because of the unsatisfactory ending to the fight, the IBF ordered a rematch but Donaire decided to move up to the junior bantamweight class and Mthalane was given a crack at the vacant belt against Mexican Julio Cesar Miranda on November 29, 2009 at the Wembley Indoor Arena in Johannesburg.
In an outstanding performance, Mthalane dominated the Mexican to win with scores of 117-111 and 118-111, twice over 12 rounds.
In his first defence, he met fellow South African Zolani Tete, who was highly rated and undefeated at the time, and against the odds he stopped Tete in the fifth round.
Tete would go to become one of South Africa’s most outstanding fighters, winning the WBF flyweight, WBO Africa flyweight, IBF junior bantamweight, WBO Africa junior bantamweight, WBO bantamweight, Commonwealth, IBF International and WBO International junior featherweight titles.
Moruti would then make successful defences of the IBF belt against John Riel Casimero (tko 5), Andrea Sarritzu (tko 7) and Ricardo Nunez (tko 8).
After being offered a very low purse, reported at R60 000, to defend his belt against the mandatory challenger Amnat Ruenroeng from Thailand, he decided to vacate the IBF belt, and was inactive from September 2012 to March 2014, when he beat Jether Oliva on a 12-round split decision in Durban to win the vacant IBO flyweight belt.
After his long-time trainer Nick Durandt decided to retire from boxing, he joined Colin Nathan at the then Hotbox gym.
He made three successful defences of the IBO belt before relinquishing it and regained the IBF flyweight belt on July 15, 2018 under the guidance of Nathan, in a clash for the vacant title, against Muhammad Waseem in Kuala Lumpur.
Since joining Nathan, he has had outstanding success defending his IBF belt on three occasions against Japanese challengers in Japan, winning against Masahiro Sakamoto (tko 10), Masayuki Kuroda (pts 12) and Akira Yaegashi (tko 9) on December 23 2019.
On April 30, 2021 in a lacklustre performance, he lost the IBF belt to Sunny Edwards at the famous York Hall in Bethnal Green, London.
The York Hall, officially known as the York Hall Leisure Centre, is a multi-purpose indoor arena and leisure complex situated on Old Ford Road. The building opened in 1929 with a capacity of 1,200 and is now an international boxing venue.
Mthalane, who is known as “Baby Face”, was voted South African sportsman of the year for 2019.
This humble and well-mannered fighter is a credit to the boxing game and will always be remembered for his technique and fitness.