By Jake Donovan

Takalani Ndlovu knows what it’s like to be on the wrong end of a sour decision. An uproar was raised over his ESPN2-televised controversial points loss to Fernando Beltran more than three years ago in Nashville. The 34-year old also twice fell short to countryman and former world champion Vuyani Bungu earlier in his career.

Rather than whine that he was done wrong, Ndlovu instead laced ‘em up and kept pursuing his dream of becoming a champion. He was persistent enough to not get discouraged by two losses to Steve Molitor, getting it right on the third try in outpointing the Canadian nearly one year ago.

It is for that reason that he hardly feels empathy towards countryman Jeffrey Mathebula, who has insisted to all who would listen that he was twice victimized in the ring. Included among his rant is the split decision won by Ndlovu in their Sept. ’10 title eliminator. The two will meet again on March 24 and Mathebula is convinced the deck is once again stacked against him.

“I was robbed in my own country when I fought Takalani the first time and we had South African judges,” Mathebula insisted in a recent article on Boxingscene.com. “I have to stop him this time, to make sure I don’t get robbed again.”

Ndlovu’s problem with the claim is that it’s the same song whenever his rival comes up short.

“Jeffrey is wrong when he said he was unlucky when he got split decision in the first fight. I think I was unlucky to don’t get unanimous decision against him,” states Ndlovu (33-6, 18KO), who makes the second defense of his alphabet belt.  “He cannot keep saying he was unlucky every time he loses.”

The irony in Mathebula’s claims is that it was a narrow – and somewhat unpopular – decision that put him in position to rematch Ndlovu for the title.

“He was unlucky against Caballero, he was unlucky against me,” Ndlovu says, pointing to a trend as well as hypocrisy. “What he doesn’t say is the fact that he was lucky to get split decision in his advantage, when he fought the mandatory eliminator against Oscar Chauke last year. Many people thought Oscar did enough to win.”

Mathebula prevailed by split decision last June for his second straight win, but hasn’t fought since. The win was technically for the #2 spot in the IBF ratings, but he was granted a mandatory shot largely in part to the efforts of Branco Milenkovic, who promotes both fighters.

Rather than complain of his misfortunes at the scoring table, Ndlovu believes his opponent should be grateful of the efforts made to keep him in the title picture.

Let’s hope he won’t say on March 24th after I beat him, that he was unlucky again,” Ndlovu wishes. “He is lucky to have a promoter like Branco, who keeps giving him big opportunities every time he loses the fight.”

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com