Hlatshwayo brings action home for Limpopo boxers

For 13 years Isaac “Angel” Hlatshwayo was paid to box, but the tables have turned, and he will be the pay master to boxers that will participate in his maiden development tournament as a promoter at Malamulele Boxing Hall in Limpopo on March 22.

Of the 14 fighters in his “Rising Stars” card, 10 are his Limpopo homeboys from different gyms.

Hlatshwayo trades under the banner of Angel Promotions. His “Rising of Stars” tourney will be headlined by an eight-rounder between Trevor Nghonyama from Malamulele and Njabulo Buthelezi from KwaZulu-Natal.

Nghonyama’s No 3 rating in the flyweight division will be on the line against sixth-rated Buthelezi.

Hlatshwayo, a former SA and IBO lightweight, IBO and IBF welterweight champion, says staging his tournament at home was an attempt to reduce the number of fighters relocating to Johannesburg where the grass is not as green as it appears at a distance. “The only way to keep them at home is to give them action,” said Hlatshwayo, whose illustrious career began in Johannesburg in 2000 and ended there in 2023.