By Ronnie Nathanielsz
South Africa’s Simpiwe Nongqayi (15-0, 6 KO’s) and his trainer Nick Durandt were detained in Germany while en route to Mexico to face Jorge Arce for the vacant IBF junior bantamweight title in Cancun, Mexico on September 15.
The boxer and his trainer were merely in transit but were nevertheless detained for almost seven hours for entering Germany without visas. However, they were released after authorities verified that they were taking a connecting flight to Brazil from where they will fly to Mexico.
Super Sport reported that Nongqayi is heading for the most important fight of his career and is regarded as the underdog in the fight against the veteran Arce who has a record of 42—5-1 with 40 knockouts.
Arce is coming off a 3rd round knockout over the over-matched Fernando Lumacad of the Philippines who was bitterly criticized for virtually surrendering to Arce last June 27 while Nongqayi won a twelve round unanimous decision in title eliminator against Francisco Arce last February 28 after dropping Arce in the first round.
Francisco Arce is the younger brother of Jorge Arce. Nongqayi relinquished his WBF title after his win over the younger Arce.
The trip to Mexico would end after a grueling 50 hours with the South African challenger and trainer Durandt arriving in Cancun just four days before the fight.
