The South African boxing fraternity is mourning the loss of boxing legend Dingaan Thobela who passed away on Monday evening. According to the reports, the boxing legend was found dead in his flat in Mayfair, Johannesburg on Monday night. Various publications have that the ‘Rose of Soweto‘ passed away after battling an undisclosed illness.
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The 57-year-old Thobela had been unwell and his childhood friend Eddie Mutungutungu confirmed the former world champion was found dead after several attempts to contact him drew a blank.
Boxing Legend Dingaan Thobela Passes Away
Mutungutungu told Sowetan on Monday that the late boxing star was not available on his mobile phone and that raised the concerns. “He was strangely unavailable on his mobile, and his family, accompanied by police, managed to gain access to his place of residence and found he had passed on,” Mutungutungu told Sowetan.
It is also mentioned that the Chiawelo-born boxing legend, Thobela could not attend Boxing SA’s symposium at the Arena Holdings offices in Parktown last Friday due to poor health.
Thobela’s Achievements as a Boxing Great
Looking at his achievements, Thobela boasts three world titles in two weight divisions – the first two being the WBO and WBA lightweight belts in the lightweight divisions early in his blossoming career under veteran trainer Norman Hlabane.
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Back in September 2000, the “Rose of Soweto” finally blossomed as he clinched the most prestigious WBC super-middleweight belt via a 12th-round stoppage victory over defending champion Glen Catley at Carnival City in Brakpan.
Award-winning boxing trainer Elias Tshabalala was in his corner and it’s also worth mentioning that the legend was separated from his common-law wife Sandra. They had two children together, Ntombi and Dingaan Thobela Junior.
Boxing Legend Dingaan Thobela enjoyed support in Mzansi beyond colour lines as his victories outside South Africa brought traffic to a standstill, with wild celebrations in townships. Just two weeks ago, Joseph Makaringe – the former SA welterweight champion – passed away after a short illness.
Thobela Focuses on Boxing Development
As he was involved in business as an owner of a funeral parlour, Thobela and another boxing icon, Brian Mitchel, announced a partnership in 2021 that they were teaming up and would start a development programme to uplift the youth and upcoming fighters in the country.
They said they were working on finding a formula to revive and create interest in the sport of fisticuffs.
“We are still talking and still in the planning stages. But the project is definitely going ahead. We want to come up with an integrated development programme across the country,” said Thobela at the time per Sunday World.
“We want to reignite the interest in boxing because it was one of the big. We want to reignite the interest in boxing because it was one of the biggest sports in the country during our days. Boxing used to be the number two sport in the country after soccer. So, we are putting our heads together to revive the game.”
Boxing Legend Dingaan Thobela became a household name in the 1990s when he defeated Mexican Mauricio Aceves to win the WBO lightweight crown in Brownsville, Texas, in the US.
In another story published by this publication, Sport Plus reported that Kaizer Chiefs defender Luke Fleurs was gunned down earlier this month in a botched robbery in Gauteng.
Various media outlets suggest that the Cape Town-born central defender, Fleurs was shot in Florida during a robbery that went wrong. Fleurs was shot and killed in a botched hijacking or robbery incident on Wednesday and the news was confirmed by a source close to Kaizer Chiefs.
TimesLIVE reported that Gauteng police spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo said late on Wednesday night he had not received any official report on the incident yet.
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