Boxing champ Cafu wants to give youngsters hope

World champion Phumelela Cafu developed his warrior’s heart growing up tough on the streets of Duncan Village, a weapon that should serve him well in his title unification bout in the US next month.

The WBO junior-bantamweight titleholder is already being labelled the underdog against WBC king, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, ahead of their July 19 clash in Frisco, Texas.

But the South African, who turns 27 a week after the bout, carries drive he has displayed since he was a teenager growing up tough in the East London township.

He’s been stabbed four times in two fights. On one occasion, two would-be robbers tried to take his phone and watch. “I couldn’t let them take my things,” Cafu, who moved to Johannesburg last year, said after a sparring session this week.

“In my ’hood, if you let people take your things, you’ll be seen as weak. I had to fight.”

And fight he did, successfully fending them off. “Afterwards, I realised the one guy had stabbed me twice in the right shoulder.”

The other time he went to the defence of his cousin, who had been stabbed in a scuffle with seven or eight people at a nightclub. Cafu took them on alone — with his cousin’s knife, he admitted — but was stabbed in the leg and back as he retreated. “That’s life in Duncan Village,” said the father of two.

“Gangsters are role models. People think they respect them, but they don’t. They fear them. I’ve got friends who are gangsters. I’ve run with them, but I knew I didn’t want that for myself. I want to give youngsters hope. I would like to do something for the people of Duncan Village, maybe through boxing, I’m not sure. I also want to assure mothers that boxing is safe.”

Cafu’s own mother was against him taking up the sport. She didn’t mind when he first accompanied his father, also a fighter, to the gym, but when he started getting fights as a young amateur, she objected.

“Actually it was my grandmother who persuaded her to let me box. If it wasn’t for my grandmother, I wouldn’t have become a boxer,” said Cafu, who will earn the biggest purse of his career to date.

He, however, credits his mother with helping him lead an honest life. He was young when she remarried and had his step-brother, but after subsequently getting divorced, she was unemployed and relied on the government’s child grant.

“She made that money stretch. I always had something to eat for lunch at school and she always gave me what I wanted. If I wanted some type of clothing, she might say ‘I can’t get it now, but give me some time, I will get it’.”

Cafu wants to buy a house for his mother and put money away to ensure his children are always looked after.

He doesn’t only possess a warrior’s heart, but also a willingness to learn and improve as a fighter. He believes he has grown as a boxer since winning the world title from Kosei Tanaka in Japan. “It took a while to really realise I’m a world champion, but I’m feeling now that I belong.”

His trainer Colin Nathan had made him sharper. “He’s shown me things, like when to throw a punch and manage my distance better.”

Cafu is way behind Rodriguez when it comes to experience — with 11 wins, eight inside the distance, and three draws to the American southpaw’s  21-0 (14 stoppages). Rodriguez has already engaged in seven world title fights, one of which was a unification contest at flyweight. 

That’s where Cafu’s heart, especially his conquer-or-die attitude, could be crucial.