Durandt spells out his agenda
There's no denying the contribution boxing trainer Nick Durandt has made to the sport over the past three decades – and it doesn't looks as if it will be stopping any time soon.
Boxing manager Nick Durandt. FILE PIC. Photo by Lefty Shivambu / Gallo Images
He might be gearing up to guide Moruti Mthalane into battle against Silvio Olteanu in Germany next weekend, but Durandt is already looking to the future and adding another feather to his cap in a bid to boost the sport’s fortunes in South Africa.
It’s a plan that may have been sparked to life by the fact that Mthalane received the short end of the stick when the purse bid for the fifth defence of his crown was announced. Add to that the current blackout of boxing by the national broadcaster the SABC and you can see why Durandt is looking at other avenues.
While there have been suggestions that “Mthakathi” should take out a promoters licence it’s not an option he’s exploring yet, but he did reveal this week that plans are in place for him to team up with a company in an advisory capacity given that Durandt is unable to hold both a managerial and promoter’s licence concurrently.
“I would love to take a promoter’s licence. However Loyiso and I are going to spar in his office because there’s a current regulation that says I can’t have a manager’s licence and a promoter’s licence,” Durandt said in reference to Boxing South Africa’s acting chief executive Loyiso Mtya.
“However there will be a promoter’s licence taken next year. I will be employed as a boxing adviser to that company. I don’t believe there’s a licence required for a boxing adviser. I will partner up with someone next year because I believe that we are very far from being done with boxing in this country.
“I still like the smell of the sweat in the gym. I don’t believe I’m at that stage of my career that I want to sit ringside like a ‘madala’ and watch two guys having a fight. I want to be part of it. I like the victory in the ring.
“I like being part of the build-up to a fight and I like being in the gym,” added Durandt, who has been involved with fights that included the likes of boxing superstars Floyd Mayweather, Marco Antonio Barrera and Roy Jones Jnr.
“I think it’s time now. I’ve got all the expertise, I’ve travelled the world and fought in the biggest arenas in the world. “I’m one of the few trainers in this country that have been involved in super fights.
“I want to take my expertise and time in boxing and give it one more shot at lifting boxing in this country and taking it back to where it belongs.”
