South Africa’s grip on the slippery WBC belt loosened on Saturday night when Kevin “Two Guns” Lerena lost that boxing sanctioning body’s bridgerweight belt to Ryad “The Cannon” Merhy via a unanimous points decision.
This country has had only four WBC world champions — Thulani “Sugarboy” Malinga, Dingaan “The Rose of Soweto” Thobela, Siyakholwa “One Way” Kuse and Lerena.
Malinga won the super middleweight belts twice, in 2006 and 2007. Thobela won it in 2000. Neither of them defended it successfully.
It took South Africa 24 years to have another WBC world champion when Lerena won in 2024.
He was crowned by the WBC championship committee after Englishman Lawrence “The Sauce” Okolie vacated the title when he was supposed to make his mandatory defence against Lerena.
Lerena’s loss on Saturday night − his second attempt to retain it − took place in Charleroi, Belgium.
The second meeting between Lerena and Merhy was a closely contested fight confirmed by one score of 115-113. The other two scores of 116-112 and 117-111 did not reflect the closeness of the bout.
Lerena defeated the Ivorian-born, Belgian-French fighter in 2023 at Emperors Palace to win the vacant WBC silver bridgerweight title.
His defeat on Saturday was his first as a defending world champion.
Lerena reigned supreme for three years as the IBO cruiserweight world champion with six successful defences until he vacated that belt to move up to the heavyweights.
His loss to Merhy comes at a time when SA has just welcomed Kuse, who dethroned Melvin “El Gringo” Jerusalem in their second meeting at Emperors Palace on May 16.
Lerena, whose corner was manned by the Smith brothers, Peter and Sean, said: “This is me saying thank you for all the support to my fans back home, all people behind me, and my sponsors.”
Boxing SA CEO Tsholofelo Lejaka said: “Kevin fought his heart out and left everything he had in that ring. He rose up like a warrior and defended our national pride on the global stage.
“The night was not his, but in our eyes he remains the hero he has always been. We have no doubt that he will soon bounce back from this setback and reclaim victory yet again.”
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