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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three-time world boxing champion Dingaan Thobela was found dead in his Mayfair, Johannesburg, flat on Monday evening.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The legendary boxer, who fought across four weight divisions during his illustrious career, lost his final fight to an undisclosed illness at the age of 57.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hailing from Chiawelo in Soweto, Thobela was aptly dubbed the “Rose of Soweto”. His first big bloom came in 1990 after winning the WBO lightweight title in a fight against Mauricio Aceves.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three years later, Thobela achieved a split-decision victory over Tony Lopez to obtain the WBA lightweight title, but he really blossomed in the twilight of his career in 2000 when he knocked out Glenn Catley, then super middleweight champion, to obtain the WBC title — only the second South African to obtain a WBC belt, after Thulani “Sugarboy” Malinga.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2161169\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ED_466379.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"775\" /> <em>Dingaan Thobela in a 1990 image. (Photo: Gallo Images/City Press)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2161168\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ED_466377.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"537\" /> <em>Dingaan Thobela in a 1993 image. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2161167\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ED_466374.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"965\" /> <em>Dingaan Thobela after winning the NBA title. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having been behind on points after 11 rounds of action, Thobela put Catley on the canvas with 45 seconds left in the final round.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He must rate in the top four of all time, without a doubt,” boxing historian Ron Jackson told </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When he beat (Glenn) Catley, nobody gave him a chance,” said Jackson, who was at the fight at Carnival City in 2000. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He was behind on points and he caught Catley in the 12th round.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experienced boxing promoter Rodney Berman, who served as Thobela’s promoter for all three championship fights, regards the “Rose of Soweto” as one of the best the country has ever seen in the ring.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“A young Dingaan Thobela is without a doubt the most talented and exciting fighter in all my years I’ve ever come across in South Africa,” Berman said to </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“In 1993 he fought as a lightweight and beat Tony Lopez for the IBF title. Seven years later, he fought as a super middleweight, at a time when he was really well past it and not expected to win.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“In one of the most dramatic fights in our boxing history, he became only the second [South African] to claim the WBC title. It was the most unbelievable fight.”</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2161164\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ED_459402.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"442\" /> <em>Joshua Maponga and Dingaan Thobela during the Floyd Mayweather Banquet Dinner at the Sandton Convention Centre on July 15, 2023. (Photo: Gallo Images / Oupa Bopape)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2161163\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/0000141781.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"943\" /> <em>Dingaan Bongane Thobela on May 5, 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press / Lucky Nxumalo)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<b>Different weight</b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thobela’s jumping from lightweight to super middleweight between 1993 and 2000 was simply down to his enjoyment of food, according to Jackson.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He wasn’t too particular about his weight,” Jackson said. He used to put on weight and then try to take it off and it eventually caught up with him.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He lost his last few fights due to him battling with weight, but up until then he was one of the best, without a doubt.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thobela’s record in the ring saw him fight on 56 occasions, winning 40, with 26 of those wins coming by knock-out. He lost 14 fights and drew two.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He loved to eat,” Jackson quipped. “He just loved eating and then he thought he could pull it off [but] you can’t keep doing that.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nonetheless, merely thinking about Thobela’s supreme talents in the ring still excites Jackson.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He had all the skills, everything was there,” he said. “He was very skillful. [His] jab was terrific.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I get cold shivers thinking about him… he was a skillful fighter from day one.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Berman, however, believes the talent Thobela had in his gloves and footwork could have taken him even further.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Dingaan lacked one thing. With all his absolute natural ability, you find a lot of top sports people suffer from the same thing – they haven’t got the same determination,” Berman said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Dingaan, after a lull of seven years (in 2000), was fighting far above his natural fighting weight but he still had that incredible will to win.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The last few seconds, he was well behind on all the scorecards but he came out with this flourish… it was incredible,” he said about his victory over Catley.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“That’s indicative of the character of the man. He was a real fighter.”</span>\r\n\r\n<b>The man behind the fists</b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A recurring theme from all who speak about Thobela is the wonderful person he was outside the boxing ring.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Other than being a three-time world champion and one of the legends of world boxing in this country, he was a very nice guy as well,” former South African boxing champion Brian Mitchell told </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“[He was] very humble, gentle and kind to people. I enjoyed him as a person. I always thought he was such a good guy.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It’s just incredible how guys like Dingaan are so good inside the ring and outside the ring they become gentlemen. He was a real gentleman.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For all his achievements in the ring, his lasting memory to those closest to him in the boxing fraternity remains his kindness to those around him.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I always found Dingaan very unassuming, very quietly spoken, very accommodating and just a very nice person,” Berman reiterated.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He’s going to be badly missed. He’ll go down as one of the all-time greats in South African boxing.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thobela retired from boxing in 2006. He was separated from his common-law wife Sandra. They had two children together, Ntombi and Dingaan Thobela Junior.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Dingaan ‘The Rose of Soweto’ Thobela was a champion fighter who captured the hearts and souls of the nation,” sports minister Zizi Kodwa said in a statement.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The Rose of Soweto progressed from a prolific amateur boxer to become a three-time world champion as a professional.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“As we celebrate 30 years of South African democracy, we mourn the loss of an athlete who did so much to elevate South African sport through his success in boxing.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We also celebrate a champion boxer who inspired the nation, future boxers and champions from Soweto, Mdantsane, Thohoyandou and other parts of the country.” </span><b>DM</b>\r\n\r\n ",
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"name": "South African boxer Dingaan Bongane Thobela on May 5, 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press / Lucky Nxumalo)",
"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three-time world boxing champion Dingaan Thobela was found dead in his Mayfair, Johannesburg, flat on Monday evening.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The legendary boxer, who fought across four weight divisions during his illustrious career, lost his final fight to an undisclosed illness at the age of 57.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hailing from Chiawelo in Soweto, Thobela was aptly dubbed the “Rose of Soweto”. His first big bloom came in 1990 after winning the WBO lightweight title in a fight against Mauricio Aceves.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Three years later, Thobela achieved a split-decision victory over Tony Lopez to obtain the WBA lightweight title, but he really blossomed in the twilight of his career in 2000 when he knocked out Glenn Catley, then super middleweight champion, to obtain the WBC title — only the second South African to obtain a WBC belt, after Thulani “Sugarboy” Malinga.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2161169\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"720\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2161169\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ED_466379.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"775\" /> <em>Dingaan Thobela in a 1990 image. (Photo: Gallo Images/City Press)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2161168\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"720\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2161168\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ED_466377.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"537\" /> <em>Dingaan Thobela in a 1993 image. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2161167\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"720\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2161167\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ED_466374.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"965\" /> <em>Dingaan Thobela after winning the NBA title. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having been behind on points after 11 rounds of action, Thobela put Catley on the canvas with 45 seconds left in the final round.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He must rate in the top four of all time, without a doubt,” boxing historian Ron Jackson told </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“When he beat (Glenn) Catley, nobody gave him a chance,” said Jackson, who was at the fight at Carnival City in 2000. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He was behind on points and he caught Catley in the 12th round.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experienced boxing promoter Rodney Berman, who served as Thobela’s promoter for all three championship fights, regards the “Rose of Soweto” as one of the best the country has ever seen in the ring.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“A young Dingaan Thobela is without a doubt the most talented and exciting fighter in all my years I’ve ever come across in South Africa,” Berman said to </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“In 1993 he fought as a lightweight and beat Tony Lopez for the IBF title. Seven years later, he fought as a super middleweight, at a time when he was really well past it and not expected to win.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“In one of the most dramatic fights in our boxing history, he became only the second [South African] to claim the WBC title. It was the most unbelievable fight.”</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2161164\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"720\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2161164\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ED_459402.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"442\" /> <em>Joshua Maponga and Dingaan Thobela during the Floyd Mayweather Banquet Dinner at the Sandton Convention Centre on July 15, 2023. (Photo: Gallo Images / Oupa Bopape)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2161163\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"720\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2161163\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/0000141781.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"943\" /> <em>Dingaan Bongane Thobela on May 5, 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press / Lucky Nxumalo)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<b>Different weight</b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thobela’s jumping from lightweight to super middleweight between 1993 and 2000 was simply down to his enjoyment of food, according to Jackson.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He wasn’t too particular about his weight,” Jackson said. He used to put on weight and then try to take it off and it eventually caught up with him.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He lost his last few fights due to him battling with weight, but up until then he was one of the best, without a doubt.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thobela’s record in the ring saw him fight on 56 occasions, winning 40, with 26 of those wins coming by knock-out. He lost 14 fights and drew two.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He loved to eat,” Jackson quipped. “He just loved eating and then he thought he could pull it off [but] you can’t keep doing that.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nonetheless, merely thinking about Thobela’s supreme talents in the ring still excites Jackson.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He had all the skills, everything was there,” he said. “He was very skillful. [His] jab was terrific.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I get cold shivers thinking about him… he was a skillful fighter from day one.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Berman, however, believes the talent Thobela had in his gloves and footwork could have taken him even further.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Dingaan lacked one thing. With all his absolute natural ability, you find a lot of top sports people suffer from the same thing – they haven’t got the same determination,” Berman said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Dingaan, after a lull of seven years (in 2000), was fighting far above his natural fighting weight but he still had that incredible will to win.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The last few seconds, he was well behind on all the scorecards but he came out with this flourish… it was incredible,” he said about his victory over Catley.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“That’s indicative of the character of the man. He was a real fighter.”</span>\r\n\r\n<b>The man behind the fists</b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A recurring theme from all who speak about Thobela is the wonderful person he was outside the boxing ring.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Other than being a three-time world champion and one of the legends of world boxing in this country, he was a very nice guy as well,” former South African boxing champion Brian Mitchell told </span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily Maverick</span></i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“[He was] very humble, gentle and kind to people. I enjoyed him as a person. I always thought he was such a good guy.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It’s just incredible how guys like Dingaan are so good inside the ring and outside the ring they become gentlemen. He was a real gentleman.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For all his achievements in the ring, his lasting memory to those closest to him in the boxing fraternity remains his kindness to those around him.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I always found Dingaan very unassuming, very quietly spoken, very accommodating and just a very nice person,” Berman reiterated.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“He’s going to be badly missed. He’ll go down as one of the all-time greats in South African boxing.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thobela retired from boxing in 2006. He was separated from his common-law wife Sandra. They had two children together, Ntombi and Dingaan Thobela Junior.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Dingaan ‘The Rose of Soweto’ Thobela was a champion fighter who captured the hearts and souls of the nation,” sports minister Zizi Kodwa said in a statement.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The Rose of Soweto progressed from a prolific amateur boxer to become a three-time world champion as a professional.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“As we celebrate 30 years of South African democracy, we mourn the loss of an athlete who did so much to elevate South African sport through his success in boxing.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We also celebrate a champion boxer who inspired the nation, future boxers and champions from Soweto, Mdantsane, Thohoyandou and other parts of the country.” </span><b>DM</b>\r\n\r\n ",
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"summary": "Regarded as one of the most naturally talented boxers of his time, South African boxing legend Dingaan Thobela lost his final fight to illness on Monday.",
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Dingaan Thobela in a 1990 image. (Photo: Gallo Images/City Press)
Dingaan Thobela in a 1993 image. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press)
Dingaan Thobela after winning the NBA title. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press)
Joshua Maponga and Dingaan Thobela during the Floyd Mayweather Banquet Dinner at the Sandton Convention Centre on July 15, 2023. (Photo: Gallo Images / Oupa Bopape)
Dingaan Bongane Thobela on May 5, 2011 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo: Gallo Images / City Press / Lucky Nxumalo)