The Rose of Soweto

He was one of the most prominent fighters, for a while dating then Miss South Africa Basetsana Makgalemele, driving fast cars and commanding the attention of Nelson Mandela. On the night that Dingaan Thobela challenged American Tony Lopez for the World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight strap at Sun City in 1993, Mandela, then ANC president, held a press briefing at the old Jan Smuts airport before flying out the country. 

Madiba had a lot on his mind at the time. He had just failed to broker a peace deal with IFP boss Mangosuthu Buthelezi to end the years-long violence between their supporters. And he was on his way to an Organisation of African Unity meeting in Egypt before heading to the US to meet president Bill Clinton and fundraise for his party’s election campaign. But during the briefing, a fairly informal affair, Mandela turned discussions to the fight, asking journalists who they thought would win. 

Thobela had lost his first bout against Lopez in Sacramento four months earlier in what every local fan believed was a robbery, and Madiba had no doubt that Thobela would win the rematch. The “Rose of Soweto” didn’t let him down, winning the fight on points to land his second world title in the 61.2kg lightweight division. Until then Thobela had been a conditioned fighter who had pretty much every attribute a top boxer could want — a punch, heart, skill and a chin. 

Few South Africans could throw uppercuts with both hands the way Thobela did, something that Brian Mitchell, the experienced WBA junior-lightweight champion, learnt for himself during a sparring session. There had been calls for Thobela and Mitchell to fight in the ring, but it was never to be. By the time Thobela won the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) lightweight title in September 1990, Mitchell was already looking at a mega-money unification bout against Lopez. 

One proposal made to Mitchell’s camp was for a trilogy where the first two bouts would be fixed, with Mitchell and Thobela winning once each before competing for real in the third. It is said that Mitchell's promoter Rodney Berman threw the offer — and the person who had proposed it — out of his office. Mitchell and Thobela did share the ring, eventually, with Mitchell as his trainer for a few years. 

Thobela was born in Chiawelo, Soweto, and his father Godfrey, a panel beater, wanted him to learn how to defend himself without using weapons, according to historian Ron Jackson. Thobela joined the gym of trainer Norman Hlabane and enjoyed an impressive amateur career spanning more than 80 bouts, during which he won the national lightweight title. 

Thobela made his professional debut in June 1986, outpointing Quinton Ryan, a decent fighter who went on to win the South African junior-lightweight title. He was named Prospect of the Year for 1987 and in March 1988 he stopped former national featherweight champion Gerald Isaacs for the vacant Transvaal junior-lightweight title. Later that year he lifted the South African title, also at junior-lightweight, but he made no defences, focusing on foreign opponents.

Thobela delivered one of his most famous victories in early 1990, coming from behind to stop Colombian Filipe Orozco in the final 10th round. In his next bout he beat WBO champion Mauricio Aceves in a non-title bout in the US before getting the crack for the belt in a rematch five months later. Thobela made two successful defences before relinquishing the belt to go after Lopez. Those two defences turned out to be the only successful title defences he ever made. 

After defeating Lopez his professional record stood at 29 wins, one loss and a draw, but for the remaining 13 years that Thobela continued to fight, he delivered an underwhelming performance with 11 victories, 13 defeats and a draw. He lost the WBA belt in his first defence to Japan-based Russian Orzubek Nazarov at Nasrec, near Soweto, although afterwards he talked about an altercation he had had with his promoter, Gerrie Coetzee, the former world heavyweight champion. Thobela said he had refused to sign a blank contract and Coetzee had then hit him in the face just hours before the bout. 

After Thobela lost the rematch to Nazarov talk about weight issues surfaced and it became a recurring theme as his six-pack dissolved. He moved up to welterweight, but his talent was still obvious as he stopped Gary Murray, a Capetonian who had held a marginal world title. In his next bout he drew with Argentinian Carlos Baldomir, who went on to hold two versions of the world welterweight title, although he struggled to make the limit. 

Thobela was also occupied by his Rose Funerals business. When asked how his undertaking operation was going, Thobela wasn’t shy to joke: “Business is dead.”

He tried blaming his weight problem on the fact that his body was naturally growing, and he didn’t enjoy criticism over his weight. But Thobela was always good-natured about it. He once phoned then Boxing World editor Bert Blewett to complain about the “Tubby Thobela” headline on the magazine’s cover. The boxer remained polite as he made his case to Blewett, who in his own gentlemanly manner, replied: “Dingaan, have you looked in the mirror lately?” The two of them were close and commentated together on SABC for a few years. 

Thobela’s weight continued to balloon. In early 1999 he tried to cheat his way through a weigh-in by pushing his thumb onto the upper part of the scale. He was given extra hours to lose the extra poundage, but came back even heavier. Later that year Thobela challenged for a marginal world middleweight title in England, but was beaten on points.

The new millennium saw a change in fortunes. Thobela won the South African super-middleweight title — more than 17kg up from his first national belt — by beating Soon Botes on points to earn a crack at Glenn Catley for the World Boxing Council (WBC) super-middleweight title. Behind on points Thobela caught up with his opponent in the final 12th round to pull off a stunning stoppage victory. 

Thobela never won after that, losing his next seven bouts, the last of which was an inside-the-distance defeat to Botes. By then his skills had been eroded by age and lack of conditioning. The boxer was always affable in public, even to journalists like me who had criticised him in articles. He was also generous, frequently sponsoring up-and-coming boxers. But there was a darker side, most of which he kept private. He was accused of being abusive by Makgalemele and he was living on his own after his marriage to Sandra had ended. 

Thobela is survived by his daughter Ntombi, son Dingaan jnr and father.