Only two South African fighters have won a WBC belt, the first being Thulani “Sugarboy” Malinga, who won the super middleweight belt on two occasions, and Dingaan Thobela who also won the super middleweight belt.
Thabiso Mchunu from KwaZulu-Natal, who is rated at No 1 by the WBC, meets Ilunga Junior Makabu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the WBC cruiserweight belt at the WD Packard Music Hall in Warren, Ohio, on Saturday night.
The 34-year-old Makabu 28-2; 25 won the vacant WBC belt in January 2020 with a points decision over Michael Cieslak and on 19 December 2020 in his most recent fight he retained the belt with a seventh-round technical knockout win over Olanrewaju Durodola.
This is a rematch between Makabu and Mchunu, with the first on 16 May 2015 at the International Convention Centre in Durban. Makabu was behind on two cards before he came back to score a knockout at 1 minute 56 seconds into the eleventh round.
After this win he met Tony Bellew in Liverpool in a clash for the vacant WBC cruiserweight belt but was stopped in the third round.
After the loss against Makabu, Mchunu, 33, who has a record of 23-5; 13, won seven of his next ten fights with the three losses coming against Oleksandr Usyk (ko 9), Constantin Bejenaru (pts 10) and Thomas Oosthuizen (md 12).
This could be a closely fought encounter between two southpaws with the odds in favour of the big punching Makabu to win on a late-round stoppage.
The big incentive for the winner of this fight is a match against four weight world champion, Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez who is considered to be pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world.
The other main organisation champions are Lawrence Okolie (WBO),Mairus Briedis (IBF), Arsen Goulamirian (WBA “super” champion) Ryad Merhy (WBA secondary champion).
On the same card in a so-called world title fight Trevor Bryan 21-0; 15 defends the WBA secondary heavyweight belt against Jonathan Guidry 17-0-2; 10.