By Ron Jackson

Former IBO lightweight champion Xolisani Ndongeni returns to action for the first time in nearly seven months when he meets Razak Nettey of Ghana over ten rounds in a lightweight bout at the Coetzenburg Stadium in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape on Sunday afternoon.
The fight will be shown live on SS9 on Sunday afternoon from 2pm to 5pm. Ndongeni relinquished the IBO belt in October last year before his fight with Juan Garcia Mendez.

The 27-year-old Ndongeni 22-0; 11 who hails from Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape but fights out of Colin Nathan’s Hotbox Gym in Glenhazel, Johannesburg has won the South African junior-lightweight, and lightweight titles; and the IBO International, WBO Pan African and IBO lightweight titles since making his pro debut with a four round points win over Luyanda Vumazonke in Mdantsane on May 29 2010.

His best wins have come against good fighters like Thompson Mokwana, Patrick Malinga Mzonke Fana the former IBF junior lightweight champion and Jasper Seroka.

In 2016 he won a first round against Emilio Norfat and in his most recent fight on November 4 last year he travelled to America and scored a one-sided ten round points victory over the capable Mexican Juan Garcia Mendez, who had only lost one of his previous 21 fights. The scores were 99-91 twice and 98-92.

Nettey who has been fighting as a pro for more than 12 years and compiled a record of 20-4; 15 will be fighting out of his home country for the first time.

However, the quality of his last eight opponents since February 2013 are questionable, except for George Krampah who had a record of 10-1 and stopped him in the ninth round in a clash for the vacant Ghanaian featherweight title at the Accra Sports Stadium on December 26 2013.
The other seven opponents all with negative win records, were Martin Ahiadekey, on two occasions, W pts 8 (3-4-1) and W tko 7 (5-7-1), Saidu Amadu W tko 3 (4-14), Joshua Kwabena W tko 2 (0-7), Raymond Ansah W tko 5 (8-15), Iddrisu Ahmed W pts 8 (0-2-1) and Joshua Owusu W tko 6 (1-9).

All the records were taken from Boxrec.

Ndongeni who is listed at No. 6 by the WBA, No. 10 by the WBC, No. 13 by the WBO and No. 11 by the IBO, must be a firm favourite to win the fight inside the distance and go on to challenge for one of the major titles.

The lightweight champions from the major organisations are Jorge Linares (WBC), Terry Flanagan (WBO), Mikey Garcia (WBA) and Robert Easter (IBF).
The current IBO champion is Emmanuel Tagoe.