Melvin Jerusalem touched down in Johannesburg this week looking every bit a world champion. With the World Boxing Council (WBC) minimumweight belt slung over his shoulder, he strolled into the arrivals hall at OR Tambo International Airport accompanied by two cornermen.
You couldn’t miss him, but then again, that was probably the idea — to be easily recognisable for the driver assigned to take the Filipino contingent to their lodging at Emperors Palace, where he puts his title on the line against South African Siyakholwa Kuse in a rematch on May 16.
Jerusalem won a unanimous decision in their first encounter in October last year, although it was a close fight that might have gone the other way had it been fought in South Africa. That convinced promoter Rodney Berman to invest in the rematch at home — the first time a foreign champion in possession of a mainstream title has come to South Africa since 2010, when Mexican Raul Garcia, holder of the IBF belt in the same 47.6kg division, was dethroned by Nkosinathi Joyi.
And this is only the fourth time this millennium that a foreign world champion has come here to fight a South African, the others being Malcolm Klassen’s challenge for the IBF junior-lightweight title in November 2006 and Dingaan Thobela’s historic victory for the WBC super-middleweight crown in September 2000.
This fight is a big deal.
Meet and greet
Kuse and his entourage, including trainer Manny Fernandes and manager Brian Mitchell, were at the airport for a meet-and-greet as well as a photo opportunity and a quick TV interview, handing him a T-shirt with logos of the sponsors.
That’s when Jerusalem switched to a polite guest, bowing respectfully as he greeted each of the smiling South Africans who want to see him relieved of his belt.
That green strap has proved the hardest of boxing’s four bona fide belts for South Africans to win, with a strike rate of only around 14%.
Only once before has a foreign WBC champion come to South Africa for a rematch, and that was nearly 53 years ago in one of the most significant fights on local soil.
I did not expect that [Siyakholwa] Kuse is a good boxer also. So this time, we will give our best to give the boxing fans a very good fight ... this time I [want] to win every round
— Melvin Jerusalem, WBC minimumweight champ
Bob Foster had defeated Pierre Fourie in his home town of Albuquerque to retain his WBC and World Boxing Association (WBA) light-heavyweight belts. Then the black American agreed to come to apartheid South Africa for the return, enticed by a $200,000 (R134,000 at the time) purse, a record for his division at the time.
Foster outpointed Fourie at the Rand Stadium in the first professional mixed-race bout under National Party rule. A little more than five years later, local boxing was fully integrated — inside the ring, at least.
The next WBC champion to come to South Africa was Catley. Now it’s Jerusalem. This fight is also a big deal for the champion, who has come early to acclimatise to Johannesburg’s altitude.
Focus on boxing
Jerusalem, who has yet to settle down into family life, grew up in Mindanao, a largely rural region in the south of the Philippines, where his parents still work harvesting pineapples.
He dropped out of school to focus on boxing. “I started with my friends and brother, who is also a boxer.”
As an amateur Jerusalem won silver at the Philippine National Games in 2014 and then learned the ropes as a professional the traditional way, losing fights and working his way back.
One of his two defeats in 2017 was against countryman Joey Canoy, who was stopped by South Africa’s Hekkie Budler.
Jerusalem suffered his third defeat challenging Oscar Collazo for the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) minimumweight title in 2023.
But with a record of 25 wins, 12 inside the distance, and three losses, the 32-year-old, who is based in Visayas in the central part of the Philippines, knows his way around the ring.
The way he came back against Kuse in what was his third title defence, after losing the early rounds, illustrated his composure, endurance and ability.
“I did not expect that Kuse is a good boxer also. So this time, we will give our best to give the boxing fans a very good fight ... this time I [want] to win every round,” said Jerusalem.
Thrown off
He added that the timing of the bout, which took place after midnight in Manila, had thrown him off a little because he had started warming up more than five hours earlier.
Over the years South African fans have seen a steady stream of Filipino fighters who, by and large, were seen as cannon fodder to the point that local boxing correspondent Pete Moscardi referred to them in the late 1990s as Manila folders.
But they’ve also produced legends and gained their first world champion some 27 years before South Africa, through flyweight Francisco “Pancho Villa” Guilledo in 1923. Manny Pacquiao and Nonito Donaire are the more recent standouts, who both happened to conquer South Africans along the way.
Jerusalem is hungry to achieve more. “I want to be a world champion a division higher [junior-flyweight], not only in minimumweight.”
After the interviews and photographs, he started to remove the T-shirt to return it. “No, it’s yours,” he was told.
Jerusalem bowed in gratitude several times as he said farewell, heading to the hotel, still in possession of the belt.
He plans on keeping it.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.