The 2025 provincial amateur boxing tournament for the juniors and cadets was held in Queenstown from Fri 19th September 2025 to the 21st September 2025. The participants were boys and girls between the age of 12 and 16, who made it to the provincial trials by winning the district championships across the Eastern Cape province.
Among the fifty-one (51) Sarah Baartman district champions, fourteen 14 (27%) of them were champions hailing from Maliboxing Academy, all fighting a good fight that resulted to Sarah Baartman taking the 2nd place, following Buffalo City Metro (BCM) district who secured the 1st place.
Three girls, Elam “Mntanezulu” Noyila (12yrs), Sinothando “Pere” Maphaphu (13yrs) and Siyamthanda Mlisana (13yrs) from Maliboxing Academy in Nolukhanyo became Eastern Cape Champions by beating all their respective opponents by knockouts.
These young girls are already in camp preparing for the South African Championships that will be held Mahikeng between the 6th and the 12th of October 2025.
“The kids did exceptionally well, going into finals with 12 boxers winning 3 gold medals and having 9 boxers in second place as silver medallist is a big deal, I know for a fact there has never been such a victory in any sports code in our area, especially if you take consideration of our academy time of existence, 26 months. We are looking forward to the South African championship’s games, we will come back as national champions and that will hopefully inspire youth from tough backgrounds like Nolukhanyo to realise that in sport, discipline and hard work leads to success. I am disappointed with the boxing judging and decision making of that tournament. If all was fair, we would have come back with eight gold medals; nevertheless now we know knockouts is what we should score to win,” said Malibongwe Tokwe, Founder & Head Coach.
The other boxers from Maliboxing Academy who came back with silver medals are Libone “Croucher” Mbezu, Osikelelweyo “Bud” Goni, Endinako “Krebe” Qamba, Yongama “Godfather” Nkombisa, Sinothando “Mozina” Maphaphu, Anathi “Bruno” Mxabanisi, Khanyisa Msimango, Mahle Noyila and Khanya Msimango; Yanga “Nomeva” Matsalo and Baphelele “Floyd” Njovane lost in quarter finals, hence did not secure medals.
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, September 25, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays