Mlungisi Dlamini 1982-2010

By Peter Lerner: “His death is a great loss to South African boxing. He was one of the most well-versed fighters in the country in terms of his skills, equally good defensively and offensively – something you don’t see so much nowadays.” Terry Pettifer, South African boxing writer

“Dlamini was really marching to greater honours.”
Rodney Berman, South African promoter

Mlungisi Dlamini, the undefeated South African lightweight, died on Friday 29th January after being involved in a car accident in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal. A passenger in his car also died after the head-on collision. He is survived by one son.

He joins a long and sad list of fighters and ex-fighters who have died in motoring-related incidents, a list that unfortunately spans much of the history of boxing from Young Stribling and Jack Johnson, and has claimed the likes of Dave Sands, Masao Ohba, Salvador Sanchez and Dlamini’s countryman, Arnold Taylor.

His record stood at 21-0-1 with 13 victories inside the distance. He was the IBO and WBF champion (the latter of which he had successfully defended four times). He was ranked No.9 by both the WBC and the IBF. It looked like he would be facing WBA champion Paulus Moses in April.

The consensus is that he was an intelligent, technical fighter with a good punch. Rodney Berman said that he was “a very smooth boxer with a sharp left hook and a jolting right hand. He was very smart in the ring.” Terry Pettifer, the experienced chronicler of South African boxing, described him as “being cut from the same cloth as Brian Mitchell, Baby Jake Matlala and Vuyani Bungu – a very good defensive fighter.”

Despite having already beaten good, known fighters in Gairy St Clair and Francisco Lorenzo, it was his last fight, against Zolani Marali, that really brought him to attention. Marali was a two-weight IBO champion and the more experienced fighter. There had been plenty of talk and anger between the two fighters in the build up, and it was seen as something of a grudge match.

Bongani Magasela, writing for the Sowetan, described what happened, “Nothing happened in the first three rounds. Dlamini had some moments but he threw powder-puff punches. Marali then began relaxing. In a flash he was down and out.”

The short right which knocked Marali out was a lovely, picture-perfect punch. Terry Pettifer said of the punch, “It was one of the finest I’ve seen in the 40 years that I’ve been writing about boxing. Dlamini slipped a punch and got him with a short, sweet right to the jaw. Marali didn’t know where he was. There was no chance of him getting up.”

It was not mere chance that such a dramatic finish came after the calm of the opening rounds. Dlamini and his trainer Warren Hurley had worked specifically on luring Marali onto a nasty surprise: “With Marali we opted to go for a tactical approach. The two had previously sparred and Marali had taken a beating. Knowing Mlungisi’s power, we thought there’d be no way he’d come to trade. So we came up with a strategy whereby Marali would get his confidence up enough to stand and trade. I expressly told Mlungisi not to sit on his punches for the first few rounds – not to let Marali feel his power. We were prepared to give away rounds and allow his confidence to grow. We knew that he would get braver, his old habits would come back, he’d start to drop his hands…and then he’d be ready.”

Hurley had worked with Dlamini since late 2001 when he was asked to take a look at the young, inexperienced fighter (only 19 years old and with just a couple of pro fights and three amateur fights behind him). The early years were all about learning the trade and working towards becoming a flexible fighter, comfortable with every type of opponent.

“I insisted that he be a full-time fighter. The developing curve of a full-time fighter is really much steeper than that of a fighter who has to also give his time and energy to a job. We spent a lot of time travelling the length and breadth of our province for sparring. The idea was to put him in with fighters with different styles and fighters from different weight categories.”

In 2003 he was inactive. Hurley explains that it was a year of study and development in the gym.

“Given his inexperience, it was understandable that there were skills he still needed to learn. I kept him in the gym working on overhauling certain aspects of his style, such as making him more comfortable sitting down on his punches.”

The result was a fighter who was not only increasingly more self confident but also capable of changing style from fight to fight. Prior to the one-punch knockout against Marali, he put in a restrained performance against the dangerous and awkward Francisco Lorenzo. The South African press were not particularly enthusiastic about the 12-round unanimous decision but Dlamini did what he had to do to win. It should be remembered that Graham Houston, the respected boxing expert, said before the fight, “Now Dlamini is stepping up another level against the very experienced and durable Lorenzo in what should be a severe test.” Dlamini passed that test without being put under any serious difficulty.

It is tragic that we will never know if Dlamini had arrived at his level or if he could have gone on to achieve even more. He and his camp were certainly ambitious. When Hulley told me about plans to win more titles at lightweight (an opportunity they would have had with the Moses fight) and then go up in weight and fight Pacquiao “if he were still around,” it was said not in the usual bragging or publicity-seeking way common in boxing, but rather as a simple, straightforward statement of intent. That was what they were planning for.

Hulley pointed out that he was very much a boxer with a point to prove: “A lot of his fights had finished early, so people didn’t really have the chance to appreciate his skills. He was very keen to implement those skills he’d learnt over the years and impress on the boxing community his true worth.”

What he could have achieved must sadly remain speculation but, apart from the titles he picked up, two accomplishments from his career are stark and clear: wins over Lorenzo, Marali and St Clair show that he was a fighter who belonged in world class; and he never knew the taste of defeat.

Secondsout would like to send its condolences to Mlungisi’s family and loved ones.

February 3, 2010