If Shervantaigh Koopman ever saw a red light flashing, it came this past weekend as stablemate, sparring partner and friend Roarke Knapp succumbed in his biggest career bout against Bakary Samaké in Paris.
Knapp had travelled brimful of confidence and fought with style and swagger, but when the chips were down, he wasn’t able to summon the strength to get back into the fight after the body shot from hell.
If not quite a trend, the failure of South African boxers to win on the road has become a worrying habit. In recent weeks, Knapp, Azinga Fuzile and Smash Hadebe have all lost big fights away from home.
Just when their careers looked set to take off, they lost and must now undergo repair jobs to reposition them. Not easy, especially in an environment where navigating the rankings and landing big fights is so fiendishly difficult.
Koopman must be mindful of this ahead of his biggest fight, against Uisma Lima for the IBO junior middleweight championship at Emperors Palace on May 31.
Aged 30 and unbeaten with 15 pro bouts under his belt, he has finally begun to attract international interest. He’s rated highly by the WBC and is ninth in the WBA rankings.
If he keeps winning, he’ll be in the mix for bigger fights – and bigger paydays – but defeat will stall any such ambitions. In the European or American environment, he could dust himself off and get back in the mix after a couple of months, but it’s far more difficult doing so as a South African.
For starters, there’s proximity: out of sight out of mind, and all that. Then there’s the currency that’s tanked, making big fights near impossible to make on home soil. No promoter worth his salt would be prepared to invest meaningful cash if his investment is compromised, much less damaged.
Throw all these factors together and it adds up to a must-win scenario for Koopman.
But there’s another dimension to the fight’s importance. SA boxing is desperate for heroes and champions, both to lift flaggings spirits and to maintain the country’s international relevance.
Back in the day when the likes of Brian Mitchell, Sugarboy Malinga and Corrie Sanders travelled and won major fights overseas, SA boxing was well regarded and fans and officials always knew that there would be no easy pickings for foreign boxers.
Recent form suggests otherwise with local boxing’s soft underbelly well and truly exposed.
Happily, there are exceptions.
In dominating and knocking out Brandon Cook in his last defence, Koopman demonstrated the cold, clinical efficiency that used to be a staple of many of SA’s best.
Lima, the Angolan-born champion, looms as a dangerous test, but if Koopman is to go places and help reinvigorate SA boxing’s ailing reputation, he must do a number on the champion.
Anything less will confirm a worrying trend.
