Phumelela “The Truth” Cafu is the new World Boxing Organisation (WBO) boxing champion.
The talented 27-year-old pugilist from Duncan Village, near East London, achieved the feat at the expense of defending junior bantamweight champion Kosei “Dream Boy” Tanaka at Ariake Arena in Tokyo on Monday.
The challenger, whose corner was manned by Colin Nathan, dropped his Japanese rival in round five en route to scoring a razor-thin split decision after 12 hard-fought rounds.
Scores from three judges were identical — 114-113 (twice) in Cafu’s favour, while one judge marked the same score but for Tanaka, who failed in his bid for the first defence of the belt he won in 2017.
Cafu remained undefeated after 11 fights. The fight against vastly experienced Tanaka, who had 11 knockouts in 202 wins against two losses, was his first under new trainer Nathan, who he joined in May.
The South African, who started his career under Mzamo Mapitla, becomes the fourth SA boxer to win the WBO belt.
The San Juan, Puerto Rico-based sanctioning boxing body is one of the four most respected around the world. The others are the World Boxing Association, World Boxing Council and the International Boxing Federation.
The first local fighter to win the WBO belt was Dingaan “The Rose of Soweto” Thobela who captured the lightweight crown from Mauricio Aceves on September 22 in the US in 1990.
Then followed Corrie “Sniper” Sanders, the 40-1 underdog who dethroned heavyweight holder Wladimir “Dr Steelhammer” Klitschko in round two in Germany on March 8 2003.
Sanders dropped the Ukrainian four times in that fight, which The Ring Magazine named Upset of the Year.
It took SA 14 years to have another WBO champion. Zolani “Last Born” Tete’s status as the interim champ was upgraded when he was on the fight back home in Mdantsane from the UK where he won the WBO interim belt after defeating Arthur Villanueva on points on April 22 2017.
Cafu kept his shape in the Tokyo fight, doing everything behind his tight defence. He spent the better part of their 12-rounder in the middle of the ring while moving side-to-side like a matador.
Tanaka was the aggressor most of the time and he threw volumes of punches, though accurate and effective blows came from the challenger.
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