By Mark Vester
There could be a promotional tug of war to retain the rights to Ali Funeka (30-1, 25KOs), who last month in South Africa stopped Zahir Raheem in four-rounds to become the mandatory challenger to the IBF lightweight title.
According to The Dispatch, Mzi Mnguni, is the local promoter of Funeka in South Africa. When Mnguni had a fighter ready for a world title and/or international bout, he used the promoter's license of Rodney Berman of Golden Gloves Promotion. When Mnguni had a falling out with Berman, he went to well-known Branco Milenkovic and used his license to promote Funeka-Raheem. They too had a falling out.
Rather than look for more help, Mnguni took a promoter's license with the New Jersey based IBF and plans to promote Funeka's world title fights on his own. Funeka is in line to fight the winner of next month's lightweight title bout between champion Nate Campbell and challenger Joan Guzman.
The paper says Milenkovic pumped in a lot of money to make sure Funeka stayed on track to world title shot, and allowed Mnguni to use his license for international purposes. Funeka maintains that Mnguni is indeed his local promoter, but Milenkovic is his international promoter. Mnguni disagrees with his fighter and says that "he alone" will take Funeka to a world title fight.
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