Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Former South African boxing champion Dingaan Thobela has been arrested by the Hawks Commercial Crime unit over his funeral parlour business, TimesLIVE reports.
The SA Police Service announced that Thobela had been arrested for alleged contravention of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act.
He stands accused of failing to register his funeral company as a financial service advisor entity as required by law.
Thobela, 48, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday‚ where he was granted bail of R3 000, with the case postponed until next month.
After compiling an amateur record of 80-3, Thobela, known as "The Rose of Soweto", turned professional in 1986 and won the WBO Lightweight title in 1990 after beating Mauricio Aceves.
After defending the belt three times, he relinquished the title and then challenged WBA Lightweight title holder Tony Lopez in 1993, but lost a hotly disputed decision. Later that year he re-matched Lopez, and won a decision to win the title. Battling to make the weight, he lost the title in his first defence to Orzubek Nazarov, and lost a re-match to Nazarov in 1994. He stopped WBF junior welterweight champion Kenny Vice in a non-title fight shortly after that.
Thobela later moved up significantly in weight class, and in the twilight of his career in 2000 took on WBC Super Middleweight title holder Glenn Catley, winning the belt via a 12th-round KO in only his second fight at the higher weight limit.
He again lost the title in his first defence to Dave Hilton Jnr via controversial split decision. The loss to Hilton was the beginning of the end for Thobela, who lost his next five fights, including a TKO loss to Eric Lucas for the WBC Super Middleweight Title in 2001 as well as later champions Mikkel Kessler and Lucian Bute.
Thobela returned to the ring at the age of 40 and after an absence of nearly two years on October 26, 2006 when he challenged Soon Botes for the South African light heavyweight title at the Wembley Indoor Arena in Johannesburg.
He had defeated Botes back in 2000 to win the South African Super Middleweight title. Many were surprised that the bout was sanctioned as Thobela failed to make the weight and his inactivity and age.
Although Thobela dropped Botes he was clearly not conditioned to fight and did not come out for the tenth round.
