Inspired by misreading the ‘Best South American boxers’ thread, I thought I’d do one on this species of fighter, which had a good run especially in the 1980s. I know some names but not well enough (at least right now without doing a lot of research) to consider doing a top 10 without leaving some good ones out, so I figured I’d throw it out for discussion. What do you say?
I say Brian Mitchell was our best ever, period, and then you can discuss who comes after that. Sanders was imho our best heavy ever and I believe he could have done better still had he had a serious promoter and a more serious outlook himself to his boxing. Other names that come to mind more or less at random: Sugarboy Malinga, Johnny du Plooy, Baby Jake Matlala, Frans Botha, Gerrie Coetzee, Pierre Fourie (fought Galindez and Foster twice and was competitive), the Toweels, Ndou ... there's a fair few though few at the top levels right now. Hekkie Budler had a good run. Oosthuizen was promising for a while ... he may be back on track ... I hope. If you go way back we had guys like Rodel and co that challeneged for titles.
Ben Foord, Kallie Knoetze, Vic and Willie (already mentioned) Toweel, Elijah Makathini, Charley Weir, Norman Sekapane, Andries Steyn, Pierre Coetzer.
Foord. I knew the fighter, the name was just nowhere. And when Moore KO'd Weir ... that was my Tyson / Douglas moment. How could this be happening? Impossible!
I’m gonna catch a lot of slack for this one ...but I really felt that Phillip Ndou was the most talented South African fighter I’ve ever seen. He just had the misfortune of running into a prime Floyd Mayweather. He could have beaten a lot of world champions that night. He had power. Hand speed. Heart. He could throw a 100 punches around
Its easy to say that because he got knocked out ...but i came away from that fight saying " I wanna see that guy fight again" but he was never the same
