Beaven Sibanda is too smart, too young and too ambitious to let one fight define him.
Which is exactly why he has cast off the demons of his lone career loss, in December, when he dropped a narrow decision to Siya Kuse.
Better yet, he has absorbed the many lessons of that defeat to become a better fighter, and one still determined to become a world champion.
Now on course for IBF honours – he fights Richard Garde for the IBF International mini flyweight belt at Emperors Palace on July 3 – Sibanda admits he made many mistakes against Kuse.
“I could have done better,” he said this weekend. “It was my first title fight; I let the moment get to me. Plus there was the issue with the scorecards.”
The Zimbabwean was fighting under World Boxing Council auspices for the first time and was rattled when the scores were announced after the fourth and eighth rounds, as per WBC policy. Boxers don’t usually know precisely where they stand in a fight, but WBC protocols have changed this – something Sibanda wasn’t used to. Plus he was down on the cards.
“I was fighting to score, not to win the fight,” he recalled. “The last few rounds were do or die for me. I gave it my all and didn’t care if it meant I was knocked out. This was from the pressure of the scorecards.”
Two key things have occurred since that to give Sibanda great heart. The most unexpected was that Kuse joined his gym, the Brian Mitchell Academy, and has since become a good friend and formidable sparring partner.
The other was last month when Sibanda produced a career best performance against highly regarded Nhlanhla Tyirha in Cape Town. He had few problems with the slick southpaw, partly because Kuse, a natural left hander, provided such help in the buildup.
“I was really happy with my performance, especially as I stuck to the game plan. My defence was much better, as I’d sometimes get caught with a lot of punches. This time I boxed the boxer.”
Naturally, Sibanda is repaying his stablemate as he prepares to fight Samuel Salva on May 31. Their sparring has been equal parts furious and fantastic.
“Things are good,” he said. “I’m very happy to go the IBF route as Golden Gloves is doing with me. For now, it’s all work. But I’m young [23] and this is all I want to do.”
