Mbulelo Botile, who has won the South African bantamweight title and three world titles, is one of the great fighters to come out of Duncan Village in the Eastern Cape.
He won the IBF bantamweight title with a second-round knockout over Harold Mestre and the IBF and IBO featherweight titles on a 12th-round stoppage against Paul Ingle, which resulted in a near tragedy.
ONE OF THE SELECT FEW TO HOLD THREE WORLD TITLES
Botile, who won the IBF bantamweight and featherweight belts and IBO featherweight belt, is one of the select few South African fighters who have won more than one world title.
He was born on 23 July 1972 in Duncan Village near East London and is reported to have had more than 300 fights as an amateur, losing only a few, with one of losses being against Zolile Mbityi, who as a professional would go on to win two South African titles and two world titles.
Botile made his pro debut on 30 July 1989 in Bisho, winning on a third-round stoppage against Makhosandile Mbiza, and then took his unbeaten streak to 11 with eight inside the distance.
In only his 12th fight on 29 May 1994 at the Lentegeur Civic Centre in Cape Town he beat the vastly experienced Derrick Whiteboy (34-3-1), who was making the eighth defence of his title, on a split decision to win the South African bantamweight crown.
He never defended the title and relinquished it three months later to further his career on the world scene, scoring victories over three foreign fighters before challenging Harold Mestre for the IBF bantamweight belt.
On 29 April 1995 on a cold night at the FNB Stadium in front of a crowd estimated at 2 500, at the 80 000 seat home of South African football, Botile pulled off the biggest victory of his career with a sensational second round knockout of the Colombian Mestre.
After making five successful defences of the title a weight drained Botile lost the belt to Tim Austin in Nashville, Tennessee.
Moving up in weight he travelled to Sheffield, England to challenge Paul Ingle for the IBF and IBO titles.
THE PAUL INGLE TRADEGY
Ingle was an outstanding fighter who fought from 1994 to 2000 and as an amateur represented Great Britain at the Olympics, and as a professional won the British, European, Commonwealth and two world titles.
On 16 December 2000 going into the fight against South Africa’s Mbulelo Botile, he was the favourite with a record 23-1; 16, with his only loss being an 11th stoppage against one England’s great featherweights Naseem Hamed.
The fight between Ingle and Botile which was for the IBF and IBO featherweight titles had undergone several postponements with Ingle sustaining injuries in training and battling to make the featherweight limit.
Botile scored a knockdown in the 11th round and Ingle was down again in the 12th round as the fight was stopped at 20 seconds into the round.
Ingle collapsed in the ring and was rushed to hospital with a blood clot on the brain, and after spending a number of weeks in intensive care he recovered partially.
He has no memory of the fight and has never fully recovered and became depressed with a massive weight gain, but today he has come to terms with it.
Ingle has difficulty with his sight, speech and balance.
Botile was never the same after this tragedy and lost his next three fights before retiring in March 2005 with an outstanding record of 27-4; 16.