BLAST FROM THE PAST | Poker-faced Sugar Boy wins title fight one-handed

1955 — Jake Tuli, the former Empire flyweight champion, challenges Peter Keenan for the bantamweight version of the belt in Glasgow, but is stopped in the 14th round of a spectacular fight. Tuli won the early rounds but the battered Keenan landed the knockout blow. Keenan had lost his bid for the world title held by South Africa’s Vic Toweel on points in 1952.

1991 — Dingaan Thobela defends his WBO lightweight title for the second time, outpointing Antonio Rivera of Puerto Rico at the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg. That was the first world title bout staged in South Africa in five years, the last occasion having been when Brian Mitchell won his world title in 1986. Thobela vacated that belt and went on to win two more world titles, but he never successfully defended a world title again.

1992 — Thulani “Sugar Boy” Malinga goes into the defence of his South African light-heavyweight crown against Jim Murray concealing a broken right hand. During the pre-fight medical examination he had to keep a poker face as the doctor squeezed both hands during the check-up. Malinga, who had broken his hand in his previous outing against Englishman Nigel Benn some months earlier, said he didn’t dare flinch. He fought mostly one-handed in the fight, but that was enough to win by majority decision. “Sometimes when I was fighting, I didn’t feel the pain,” said Malinga, who still defended the title successfully a second time before having surgery to correct the problem.

1996 — Undefeated Jan Bergman goes into the biggest fight of his career, taking on Australia-based Russian Kostya Tszyu. But Bergman, although giving a decent account of himself in the early rounds, couldn’t hold off the rampaging Tszyu and was stopped in the sixth round of their bout in Newcastle, Australia.

1996 — Dumisani Ngobe scores to lift Bafana Bafana to a 1-0 win over Kenya in a four-nations tournament opener at King’s Park. Australia and Ghana were the other two sides.

1998 — Greg Nicol, Murray Anderson and Justin King score as the South African men’s hockey team stun Australia 3-2 in a Commonwealth Games pool match in Kuala Lumpur. The side coached by Craig Jackson, ended third in their pool to miss the playoffs by one shot, while Australia went on to win gold.

2002 — Mzukisi Sikali upsets the odds as he beats Hawk Makepula on points to take the IBO flyweight title at Carnival City. Nearly two months before the bout Sikali was knocked out in a mugging during which he was cracked on the side of his head with a monkey wrench, leaving the top section of his right ear hanging by a thread. He lost much blood, which impacted on his training. Even so, he possessed sufficient gas to handle Makepula over the distance. That win made Sikali the third South African boxer to win world titles at three different weights, adding to the WBU junior-flyweight and junior-bantamweight titles he had held previously. Cassius Baloyi was the first and Lehlohonolo Ledwaba the second.

2007 — The Springboks smash England 36-0 in a World Cup group match at Stade de France.