This exciting tournament took place on Saturday, October 15 at the Chris Nissen Primary School where a total of ten professional boxers of Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Uitenhage and Knysna battled it out.
"Like I have said before, this youngster is the boxing superstar of the future. Everyone stood up in appreciation of this boy’s victory. He is proving to be just that, a superstar," said David Faas, professional boxing promoter and organiser of the tournament.
Faas further said, "We want to engage Xolani in a Western Cape title fight before the end of this year."
Mdlankomo won in the second round against professional Port Elizabeth boxer, Zolani Mbebe.
Faas said, "Three of the other local boxers of Knysna lost their rounds because they are a bit inexperienced. However, they put up brave performances and some of the fights were of top fighting style. The matches were tough, but these boxers were never bad."
Boxing fans of Knysna and surrounds were treated to a fantastic evening’s boxing.
Cheryl Britz, PRO of the Community Police Forum, said, "The people who were at the boxing tournament thoroughly enjoyed the hype and excitement of the evening. We hope to keep this initiative going and that the support from the public will grow. We hope to stage something like this again next year, looking forward to more people supporting us."
Dave Hendry, president of the Knysna Chamber of Business, said, "We want to keep this initiative going, involve the youth as much as we can. The aim of this is to expose youths to healthy activities, and this is an ongoing process."
"We didn’t host an amateur boxing tournament on the same day due to time constraints. We will be exposing amateur boxers at a later stage," said Faas.
He said that the tournament would not have been a success without the tremendous support of various organisations and the public.
"I would like to thank Cheryl Britz who was so generous in buying tickets for children who really wanted to see the tournament. The boxing tournament has made me realise that people actually want to get off the street and be involved in positive initiatives," said Faas.
He also said that he was impressed with the support he received from the Knysna Police and the crowd.
Faas would like to thank the school principal and governing body of the Chris Nissen Primary School as well as the Knysna Municipality, Dave Hendry of the Knysna Chamber of Business, Knysna Tourism, Wynand Meyer of Wepex Civils, B&V Contractors, Knysna Leisure Industries, Maponya Investments and CE Mulder of CMAI. The next amateur and professional boxing tournament will be hosted in Knysna on March 3, 2012.
For more information about getting involved in boxing contact David Faas on 084 3539 704.
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Xolani Mdlankomo (centre) being congratulated by his mother and referees at the Knysna Rising Stars Boxing Tournament at Chris Nissen Primary School. (Photo: Cheryl Britz.)
ARTICLE: ROZANO ALIE, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST
