{"id":249538,"date":"2023-02-08T21:03:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T19:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/masis-boxing-club\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T21:03:06","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T19:03:06","slug":"township-boxer-wants-to-train-the-next-tyson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/township-boxer-wants-to-train-the-next-tyson\/","title":{"rendered":"Township boxer wants to train \u201cthe next Tyson\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Masi-Cape Eagles Boxing Club is a new boxing club in Masiphumelele.<\/p>\n

Almost every day, a group of children in Masiphumelele can be found stretching, running laps, learning jabs, ducking and punching techniques and other exercises. They are training to become boxers, yet there is no boxing gym in this township in the south of Cape Town.<\/p>\n

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Coach Athi Msindeli teaches children to stretch and get fit at the Sosebenza youth centre.<\/p>\n

To train, Masi-Cape Eagles Boxing Club use a multi-purpose hall at the Sosebenza youth centre and the home of Ntsikelelo \u201cWitness\u201d Moyi, who is the founder of the club. The club trains from Monday to Thursday. If it is available, they train at the Southpaw boxing studio in Sun Valley on weekends, about 4km from Masiphumelele.<\/p>\n

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Athi Msindeli and his father Ntsikelelo \u201cWitness\u201d Moyi run the club. Moyi says the club has five coaches, all of whom are family, including his two sons.<\/p>\n

Moyi said he always loved boxing but, growing up in Nqamakwe in the Eastern Cape, the sport wasn\u2019t accessible. He has been living in Masiphumelele for over 20 years now and there are still no boxing clubs in the township. Both of Moyi\u2019s sons box. He says that this inspired him to start the club in October 2022.<\/p>\n

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Hlulumi Molowana, 13, joined the club to get fit and says he wants to fight in the future. \u201cI want to see myself becoming a champion,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Moyi says there isn\u2019t much for children to do in Masiphumelele after school. Boxing instils \u201cdiscipline\u201d, he says, and teaches children to respect themselves, their bodies and those around them.<\/p>\n

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Eight-year-old Asiphile Mgqutyana was one of over a dozen children at the club when GroundUp visited. The ages of the children in the club range from seven to 15.<\/p>\n

There are about 20 children currently in the club and it is free to join. Moyi is using all his own equipment including a punching bag and two sets of gloves that are too big for the children.<\/p>\n

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Moyi wants to turn this structure into a gym at the Sosebenza youth centre.<\/p>\n

At the youth centre, there is an unused structure that Moyi is hoping to refurbish into a gym but they are still searching for the resources to do that.<\/p>\n

Moyi says that they need punching bags, speed balls, skipping ropes, band bandages, protective headgear, gum guards, fighting kits and people to help build the gym. \u201cI have nothing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Athi Msindeli helps Bafana Manyathi, 13, with his gloves. The Masi-Cape Eagles Boxing Club has two pairs of adult gloves. They are too big for the children.<\/p>\n

Athi Msindeli says that there aren\u2019t any recreational activities available for children in Masiphumelele anymore. The soccer pitch has now been covered over and used for housing<\/a>. He says that \u201cI see them [children] drinking,\u201d and that projects like this can keep them busy and tire them out.<\/p>\n

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Aklhonya Mehlo, 12, practises his jabs.<\/p>\n

Msindeli\u2019s role in the club is more than just a boxing coach. He helps children with their schoolwork and encourages them to excel. He says that boxing is interesting because though it can be dangerous, you have to \u201cplay it cool and wise\u201d.<\/p>\n

One day, Moyi says, he hopes to see the next Mike Tyson come out of Masiphumelele.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see champions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bafana Manyathi is one of the club\u2019s members.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a9 2023 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Masi-Cape Eagles Boxing Club is a new boxing club in Masiphumelele. Almost every day, a group of children in Masiphumelele can be found stretching, running laps, learning jabs, ducking and punching techniques and other exercises. They are training to become boxers, yet there is no boxing gym in this township in the south of Cape […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-249538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/township-boxer-wants-to-train-the-next-tyson.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}