Johannesburg – Former South African female welterweight champion Rita Mrwebi believes women involved in boxing need to recruit more female boxers to join the sport fistic.
Mrwebi, who came out of retirement this year after spending four years in the boxing wilderness, feels women in boxing must help attract aspiring female fighters.
According to the Mthatha, Eastern Cape-born but Gauteng-based fighter, boxing has been labelled as a sport loved by violent women, which is not true.
“As women in boxing, we need to play our part to make the sport popular. To be honest, we haven’t done much to urge more females to join boxing.
“We should be pushing for more participation by encouraging young female fighters to do boxing,” said Mrwebi.
“South Africa has few active women boxers as a result. Our fighters end up fighting each other more than once because we are thin when it comes to the number of opponents.
“Boxing should also be introduced by the government at schools. It must be a regulated sport like other sporting codes such as soccer, rugby and athletics in order to promote it, introduce it to girls at a young age.”
On her comeback trail, Mrwebi was supposed to meet her arch-rival Mapule Ngubane, however, their bout was pulled out of the August 15 showpiece because her opponent was injured.
The all-women event is presented by the Gauteng Boxing Promoters Association to celebrate Women’s Month. “I had personal problems that kept me away from the ring.
Since they are now sorted, I thought it would be good for me to come back and show people that I still have it.
“My plan is to stay for few years. I wish to get a chance to face Noni Tenge and challenge for international titles, then I can share my skills with upcoming fighters when I’m done with boxing,” said Mrwebi.
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