Having successfully negotiated his comeback fight inside two rounds after a four year lay-off, Mzuvukile “Old Bones” Magwaca has all the Mzansi Junior Featherweights on notice.
Magwaca steps in the ring tomorrow, Thursday July 28, for his second fight this year, possibly as a much tougher opponent than in his previous fight against Sanele Maduna.
He will exchange blows with a man he knows very well from their amateur days, Sabelo Ngebiyana, in an eight-round bout in Sandton, Johannesburg.
For anyone who thinks the injury he sustained in his leg when he was shot in his Site C home will slow him down, Magwaca says they are all in for a huge surprise.
He says he might have been out of the ring for four years but mentally he has grown in leaps and bounds.
At 31, he feels the experience he amassed before his unfortunate incident makes him a dangerous opponent for his competitors.
His opponent, Ngebiyana is fresh off a stoppage win against Ashley Sexton in England three months ago and will go to the bout with his tail up.
“I really like that I will be going up against someone who has been very active, it gives me a lot of courage. This means he goes to this fight having a lot to lose on his side,” said Magwaca.
Ngebiyana has promised that the scheduled-eight-rounder will not reach the final bell, with Magwaca on the canvas even before the end of the third round.
Old Bones sees that as disrespect that need not go unpunished as he says he doesn’t promise to knock out his opponent but to school him throughout the fight.
“I want to teach him a a boxing lesson. I am faster and wiser now as a boxer and I don’t see how he can actually beat me when I look at his past opponents.
“He says he wants to knock me out but I don’t see how he plans on doing that. I know him, he is a talker, what I plan to do with him is teach how to box because I am a boxer and he is a fighter. So in a boxing ring I will teach him what boxing is,” says Magwaca.
Despite Ngebiyana coming off a fifth-round stoppage win, Magwaca says the man he faced offered nothing to boast about going to their bout.
Ngebiyana would have been crowned the IBF International Junior Featherweight champion after his win had he not missed the weight going to the fight.
Magwaca has his sights set on the international scene.
He says he hopes to add another fight in his resume before the end of the year, hopefully a 10-rounder having started with a six-rounder and now going to an eight-round fight.
“I want my journey to move in that direction and next year, I might be ready for the SA title but my sights are on the international scene, where I was before my accident,” he added.
The fight between Magwaca and Ngebiyana may be the one fight on the card that will have fans at the edge of their seats as both fighters have a statement to make.
