Regents Park boxer stuns with knockout victory
The rising boxing star from Regents Park dismantles Gcina Makgoba, showing he is ready to follow in his brother Ricardo’s championship footsteps.
Rising Regents Park boxer Charlton ‘Baby Pain’ Malajika showed he is about to follow in his brother and two-weight-division IBO world champion, Ricardo ‘Magic Man’ Malajika’s, footsteps on March 2.
He destroyed Gcina Makgoba in the Golden Glove’s Development boxing tournament at Emperors Palace’s Centre Court.
Charlton, who went into the six-round bantamweight contest against Makhoba with a 6-1 record, having only lost his first professional fight, was clinical in dismantling his opponent’s defences before delivering the knockout punch in the third round. This proved he could be the next big bantamweight star in SA boxing.
Baby Pain, an eight-time SA amateur champion who boxes out of the Brian Mitchell Boxing Academy Gym in Edenvale with his brother, will surely be on promoter Rodney Berman’s radar with the potential of being a future SA and world bantamweight champ like older brother Ricardo.
We will long remember both boxers giving knockout performances in tournaments at Emperors Palace.
On March 1, Ricardo stopped Jackson Chauke in the second round to claim the latter’s IBO World Flyweight title in the headline bout of the Palace Pandemonium Box and Dine Tournament. Charlton recorded a third-round knockout win against Gcina Makgoba in a development tournament at the Palace of Dreams on March 2.
With his victory, Ricardo, who also holds the IBO World Bantamweight title, is a double-weight division world champion. Charlton has shown he has the makings of a future world title holder.
Heavyweight prospect Juan Alberts of Klerksdorp took another positive step in his professional boxing career when he recorded a second-round KO victory against debutante Gilly Dickenson of Rosettenville in the development tournament.
In another cracking contest on a development tournament bill, Ndabazinhle Phiri and Enathi Stella went toe-to-toe in a junior bantamweight contest scheduled for six.
The Zimbabwean-born Phiri, who boxes out of the Brian Mitchell Boxing Academy gym in Edenvale, and Enathi Stella, who hails from Mdantsane but now plies his trade from Kibler Park, treated fans to an entertaining fight, with the judges scoring the fight in Phiri’s favour.
