Tommy Oosthuizen back in the boxing ring
Saturday's Top Guns boxing tournament at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park is attracting much interest and especially two of the fights attracts a lot of discussion.
Boxing experts and lovers of the sport are curious and at the same time cautiously optimistic about the return of the “new” Tommy Oosthuizen to boxing in his WBC International light heavyweight fight this Saturday in Kempton Park.
According to Oosthuizen and his training camp, he finally won his personal battle against demons such as alcohol and a wild social life and at this week’s weigh-first he looked in very good shape.
There is no doubt that Oosthuizen has the potential to become one of South Africa’s best boxers of all time if he can succeed to concentrate on boxing and stay away from the social evils that threatened his career in recent years.
After he officially renounced his IBO world title in the super middleweight division, Oosthuizen, together with his coach, Harold Volbrecht, decided he would henceforth box in the light heavyweight division.
Oosthuizen fights this Saturday night against the Russian, Denis Grachev. The latter is a former WBC Youth Intercontinental light heavyweight champion and he also was the light heavyweight champion of the North American Boxing Federation in 2012, after he relocated to California in America.
Grachev’s last fight was in August against Ryno Liebenberg, when he controversially lost on points in a fight for the WBC Silver light heavyweight title. He has won 13 of his 18 professional fights, eight of them with knockouts.
Another battle in the same tournament on Saturday night, is a fight between South Africans Kevin Lerena and Johnny Muller. There is also great excitement for this fight in the junior heavyweight (cruiserweight) division over ten rounds.
Lerena is currently making a big name for himself and he is a popular boxer with the public. He is the current WBC Youth Silver cruiserweight champion as well as the WBF Africa cruiserweight champion.
Muller is the former South African light heavyweight champion and the WBC International Silver light heavyweight champion. He also recently decided to move one weight division upwards and will henceforth fight as a junior heavyweight (cruiserweight).
Although Lerena is a true warrior in the ring who can hit very hard, Muller is technically probably the best boxer of the two. If Muller succeeds to exploit Lerena’s suspect defence, he can definitely end the unbeaten record of the so-called “KO Kid”.
Saturday’s boxing tournament at Emperors Palace also includes two other fights. Mbulelo Nxazonke and Thabang Ramagole fight against each other in a junior flyweight bout over eight rounds. The second fight of the evening will take place between Ali Funeka of South Africa and Roman Belaev of Russia for the IBO welterweight world title over twelve rounds.
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