Nonina is SAchampion

LIMPOPO’s Bukiwe Nonina won the South African bantam weight championships title after defeating Sharodene Fortune on judges decision in their clash in Pretoria last Saturday.

Nonina (22) from Giyani dominated the fight from the onset, but nearly lost her cool in the sixth round when Fortune gained momentum. “Fortune was a closed book to me and is not an easy boxer to sent out of the ring by technical knock-out (TKO). She has strong punches and I respect her,” Nonina said.

“Emmanuel Mutavhatsindi is my new trainer and he trained me for six months, preparing me for this fight. He has been training boxers since 2002,” she said.

“I want to defend this tittle in Limpopo. My dream is to become a world champion and now is the time to develop boxing in Limpopo.”

Mutavhatsindi said they still had a long way to go and Limpopo would be proud of their results.

“We are doing well with the few facilities we have. We still have to convince local businesses to sponsor us. I have a dream of developing boxers to become champions. Most of the trainers in Limpopo are loosing boxers to Gauteng.

“Many young boxers are phoning me, they need my service as trainer,” said Mutavhatsindi.

Spokesperson for the department of sport, arts and culture, Khathu Sadiki, said the department met with Nonina and her trainer on Thursday to discuss their future.

Sadiki said the department intended to help Nonina.