Sivenathi Nontshinga and Phumelela Cafu fought once as amateurs in East London, but now as professionals they’re stablemates looking to give South Africa a world championship double.
Both compete in title bouts in Japan, just two days apart, with Nontshinga, the country’s only mainstream world champion, defending his IBF junior-flyweight title in Tokoname, about 350km south-west of Tokyo, on Saturday.
Then in the capital 48 hours later, Cafu will bid to become the second bona fide titleholder when he challenges Kosei Tanaka for the WBO junior-bantamweight crown that has been held in Nippon for the past 10 years.
South African stablemates have seldom fought abroad so close together, and the one time it happened, also with Colin Nathan as trainer, Moruti Mthalane won and Hekkie Budler lost in Macao in 2018.
For Nontshinga, a win is critical if he wants to entrench his status as the top junior-flyweight in the world, with the other three belts being vacated by Kenshiro Teraji (WBC and WBA) and Jonathan Gonzalez (WBO), both stepping up a division.
“The camp has been intensive, I think it’s been three months now,” Nontshinga said at Nathan’s Hot Box gym in Johannesburg. “I’ve been pushing with my boy [Cafu].”
The 25-year-old is in his second reign as world champion, having lost the belt in an upset in late 2023 and regaining it early this year.
“It was a learning curve and now I know better, I know how to protect myself ... That’s why you always see me sweating, working, because I don’t want anything like that to happen again.”
Nontshinga and Cafu have become close since becoming stablemates, although they’ve known each other since their East London days, both of them taking up the sport as amateurs in Duncan Village.
They faced off only once, with Nontshinga using his skill to win a points decision. “I had seen he had power, I had to move.”
Cafu followed his father, journeyman Thembisile Mfazwe, into the sport from a young age. “I used to go with him to the gym. Sometimes I fell asleep, sometimes I hit the bag, sometimes he would take me to his fights.”
As an amateur Cafu engaged in more than 100 fights, winning the majority and lifting two Eastern Cape championships.
“I wanted to drop out of high school because I always wanted to be a professional boxer. I was like, ‘nah, I don’t need school’, but my mom pushed me to finish my matric.”
Cafu turned professional the following year.
At 26, he has a modest record of 10 wins (8 KOs) and three draws, but he doesn’t feel disadvantaged experience-wise against Tanaka, 20-1.
He pointed out he had had just six fights when he took on South African flyweight champion Jackson Chauke, a veteran of 22 bouts, in 2022, fighting to a draw. He won the rematch later that year.
And he’s not fazed by his opponent’s abilities.
“He makes a lot of mistakes and I’m sure he’s going to make mistakes and he’s going to pay for every mistake he makes,” said Cafu, who carries the tattoo of a battle-scarred Samurai on his right forearm.
“It symbolises all the things that I’ve been through in life.”
He has suffered depression, which he overcame by going to the gym and being with other people. And there are physical scars from being stabbed. “A guy wanted to rob me, but where I’m from, since we don’t have anything easy, you can’t let a guy just take something from you. So you’ve got to fight for it, I’m from the hood so that’s how we roll,” said Cafu, who pronounces the first letter of his surname with a hard “k” sound, as opposed to the Xhosa click.
“That’s how they used to pronounce it in school because I used to go to a coloured school so I’m kind of cool with whatever way people pronounce it.”
Nontshinga’s fight will be broadcast on SuperSport channel 208 from noon and will also be streamed on DAZN.
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