The idea of a welterweight Super Four tournament isn’t far from promoter Rodney Berman’s mind, but he is also hatching another plan at the weight.
While he can’t be sure what will happen on July 24 when Shaun Ness defends his title and hot-rising Thulani Mbenge boxes on the undercard, it hasn’t stopped him from musing about the possibility of a Ness versus Mbenge fight before long.
Ness is the South African champion with a dozen pro fights under his belt. Mbenge has fought five times.
Both were national amateur champions, although the hype behind Mbenge is significantly louder than for Ness.
There is still room on Golden Gloves’ October fight card at Emperors Palace and Berman hasn’t discounted the possibility of perhaps matching the pair. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself because any such plan would flounder in the event of one of them losing later this month. But if they emerge relatively unscathed, it could happen. Mbenge is rated number six and will almost certainly move up next month, so he qualifies to challenge Ness. I keep getting told how good Mbenge is, so he’s definitely one to watch.
“But Ness has qualities too. He’s been a late developer. He always comes to fight and although he doesn’t dazzle, he does the basics very well. He’ll be very tough to beat.”
