Cena misses out to redeem himself after cancelled fight

When three-times musangwe champion Khodani Cena Nephalama faced Donjuan van Heerden for his maiden professional fight, he did not prepare in advance as he anticipated that the fight would be cancelled. The fight, however, did take place and he paid dearly for the mistake as he was crushed and knocked out in the first round.

He got his second shot when he was scheduled to fight Fulufho Ramaliba on Sunday, 26 June, as a curtain raiser for a major fight between Cristiano Ndombasi and Khesahosi Makondo. The fight was supposed to take place at Meropa Entertainment World under the auspices of Mama Rocks Promotions.

For the whole month, Nephalama put everything aside and dedicated all his time to training in preparation for the fight but, as fate would have it, the fight was cancelled as a result of his opponent’s being overweight.

Although Nephalama was left a very disappointed man, he is determined to crack it one day. “I am very disappointed as I looked forward to destroying my opponent by TKO. I made sure this time around that I was prepared to make up for the first fight that I lost. And here I am today - without a fight. I had been in constant interaction with my opponent, who convinced me his weight would be right on the day of the fight, but he still ended up being overweight and the fight had to be cancelled.”

Nephalama said he was not only disappointed that the fight had not taken place. The cancellation also hit him very hard in the pocket. “I spent a lot of money on the preparations. I do not even know as to when I will have another fight as fights are scarce and hard to come by in Limpopo. I am not deterred, though, and will keep on training with the hope of getting another fight soon. I owe it to my fans, whom I disappointed in my first fight. I have to make up for them,” Nephalama said.

His trainer, Mr John Nemakonde, was equally disappointed. “This is a disaster on our part. We cannot prepare this much for a fight, only for it to end up being cancelled. My boxer was fighting fit, and we had planned for a knockout before the final round. Our hope and wish is that we get another fight soon,” he said.

Nemakonde said that he had his own misgivings about the cancellation of the fight and the way boxing was being run in the province.

Date:07 July 2022

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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