GOOD Hope Boxing Club’s Andile Mlenze decided to form a sports club in Motherwell NU 9, with the fundamental aim of keeping the youth off the street corners.
Mlenze started his boxing career at Young Lions Boxing Club some time ago. During his boxing career, Mlenze won five bouts and conceded only one loss. Mlenze said that he had decided to stop boxing after his employment shifts changed, making it difficult to continue fighting.
“I campaigned in the bantamweight division, at professional level. After I found employment, I did not have adequate time to train. My employment shifts were awkward.
“When I lost my last fight, I came to a point that it was enough for me to quit boxing.”
Mlenze said that his uncle, Zanele Morris Mlenze, who was the trainer and manager of Young Lions Boxing Club, introduced him to boxing and was very supportive of him.
Mlenze decided to help his community by forming a multidisciplinary sports club, called Fire Multi-Codes Sports Club. So far, the club has boxing, netball, athletics, soccer, chess and darts.
According to Mlenze, they look forward to adding rugby, cricket and basketball in the future. Three professional boxers – Thabiseng Didi, Sandisiwe Gxogxo and Nombulelo Didi – are some of the fighters that Mlenze and his management are proud of.
“The Didis and Gxogxo came from the amateur ranks of their club to professional level.”
The club is recruiting boxers from the Motherwell schools and they have more than 50 members in their club. We have a very small venue and this is a health risk to the boxers, darts players and chess players. We are in desperate need of a bigger venue to accommodate our players for training. Anyone who can come to our rescue, can contact me on 071 011 1278 or 061 913 2209,” he said.
