South African boxer, Kevin Lerena, is on a brink of achieving a milestone. The 30-year-old will fight for the prestigious WBC Bridgerweight World Title, if he beats the Belgian Ryad Merhy in the WBC eliminator at the Emperors Palace, on the 13th of May. The WBC organization is one of the oldest and is regarded as the most prestigious division, in the world of boxing.
Lerana has a proud record of 28 wins in 30 fights.
“The WBC is a massive organization and one of the oldest and prestigious organization. So i am just looking forward to the opportunity, i have never won a wbc world title, i have won wbc youth world title back in 2014, so now it’s time to win the world title not the youth woth world title in 2023,” says Lerena.
Only two South African boxers have ever been champions in the WBC division. Sugar Boy Malinga was the two time champion, while Dingaan Thobela was the one time champion.
“Well I’m very happy that we finally got another chance for one of South Africans to fight for the WBC. I was one of the last person to fight for the WBC and I’m sure that WBC, Rodney Berman and Brian Mitchell they will support Kevin Lerena.”
SA Boxing legend, Brian Mitchell, says the WBC organization is the premier division.
“We had Sugar Boy Malinga winning the WBC Super middle weight he won it twice, and the great Dingaan Thobela was our last WBC world champion also in the super middleweight division.”
Lerena controversially lost his previous fight to Daniel Dubois in December last year. There were reports that Boxing promoter, Rodney Berman, was going to pursue legal action in protest.
“We not taking legal action. A lot happened in that fight which was opposed to Kevin Lerena. For instance the round ended early. And there was lot of controversy in the third round he was hit in the belt.”
On the under card, Keaton Gomes will defend his SA Heavyweight Title against the former champion Joshua Pretorious. – Reporting by Vincent Sitsula
SA boxer Kevin Lerena is on a brink of achieving a milestone:
