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The news hit me like a ton of bricks. I heard on the Aubrey Masango show on Radio 702 on Monday evening that Dingaan Thobela had been found dead at his home in Mayfair. The Rose of Soweto is no more.
It is surreal.
I saw him last year and he looked as fit as a fiddle. He was in high spirits, mingling as he was with men like him – former boxing greats.
We were at the Emperor’s Palace for the official pre-fight weigh-in of the Kevin Lerena versus Senad Gashi fight and along with former world champions Lennox Lewis and Thulani Sugarboy Malinga, Thobela was Golden Gloves Promotions’ guest. With Harold Volbrecht and Brian Mitchell present in their capacity as trainers and publicists, the event sent some of us super nostalgic. And the lure to take pictures with these greats of the fisticuff sport was irresistible.
I spoke to Thobela a bit and we even agreed to hook up sometime in the future as I needed to connect him with some distant relative of his that I knew.
Fight night was too busy and we did not get to meet up my calls and messages to him going unanswered but he sent an apology upon reaching his place in the wee hours of the following day. "Oooooouch, only now that I see your message, was too noisy there. Let’s chat in the morning.”
Thobela was that available for us mere mortals.
That I ended up being texting buddies with Thobela is a privilege brought about by my choice of career of course – something my childhood friends sometimes find incomprehensible.
After all, this was a man that we grew up admiring for his talents as a boxer.
My mother and I were super fans of The Rose of Soweto and I remember how we used to stay up late at night or awake early in the morning to watch his fights.
Among those that I still recall are his victories over Danilo Cabrera (1989), and Felipe Orosco (1990) as well as his double duels with the trio of Mauricio Aceves (1990), Tony Lopez and Orzubek Nazarov.
My delight knew no bounds when he beat the likes of Antonio Riviera and Kenny Vice.
And then there was that incredible victory late in his career when he shocked all of us with his win over Glenn Catley.
Like most, his losses late in his career pained me – the sight of the previously agile boxer we like to call our own Sugar Ray Leonard being a punching bag to younger boxers hard to take.
He eventually hung up his gloves, albeit belatedly in my view.
In memory of the Rose of Soweto which has finally wilted, I thought I should share an article I did with him back in 2020 in remembrance of what he called one of the ‘greatest moments of my career’.
It is ironic that he died late in April, for that ‘moment’ also came from April.