JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African boxer Dingaan Thobela, a two-weight world champion known as “The Rose of Soweto,” has died, the ministry of sports said on Tuesday. He was 57. Thobela won the WBO lightweight title in 1990 and the WBA lightweight title in 1993, when he beat American Tony Lopez in a rematch. He moved up to super-middleweight and beat Britain’s Glenn Catley for the WBC belt with a 12th-round stoppage in 2000, his finest moment. He finished with a professional record of 40 wins, 14 losses and two draws. Thobela hailed from the famed Johannesburg township of Soweto and was widely popular in his home country as his rise coincided with South African boxing’s heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. He was one of several world-class Black fighters to emerge during the last years of apartheid, when boxing was one of the few South African sports to allow Black athletes to compete on the world stage and gain international recognition. |
More cows are being tested and tracked for bird flu. Here's what that meansMore cows are being tested and tracked for bird flu. Here's what that meansSouthwest Airlines flight attendants ratify a contract that will raise pay about 33% over 4 yearsChicago 'rat hole' has been removedWednesday casts Thandiwe Newton in highlyBiden picks up another big union endorsement, this one from building trades workersA look at the Gaza war protests that have emerged on US college campusesJudge orders preventative detention for Iranian and 2 Peruvians in thwarted plot to kill IsraelisThe US is now allowed to seize Russian state assets. How would that work?Kourtney Kardashian, 45, shows off her incredible post