Zolani Marali will get an opportunity to redeem himself when he takes on Mlungisi Dlamini for the vacant IBO lightweight title at Emperors Palace on Saturday night.

Marali can consider himself extremely lucky to be getting another opportunity to fight for a world title after he lost his previous bout via a ninth round knockout against Korean Jin Hoon Kim last month as, if regulations were followed, he should still have been servinging a mandatory suspension of 60 days because of the knockout.

However, Boxing SA allowed Golden Gloves Promotions to go ahead and pit Marali against Dlamini, saying a "loophole in the regulations had been exploited".

But this does not bode well for the 32-year-old Mdantsane fighter as he could be risking serious injury following his knockout defeat by Kim.

Marali (20-3, 13 Kos) will be attempting to win his fifth world title, although all of them were those of minor world bodies such as the WBF.

After his defeat by Kim he claimed he struggled to make the junior lightweight division and said he would be moving up a division.

But jumping straight into a world title challenge against a formidable foe like Dlamini, might come back to haunt him.

Dlamini (21-0-1, 13 Ko's) who holds the WBF crown in the division, has been campaigning in the lightweight division since turning professional in 2000.

The unbeaten KwaZulu-Natal born fighter, who at 27-years old is at the peak of his career, will come into the ring with youth on his side and is favoured to win the bout.

He was most impressive in his last bout in August when he decisively beat rugged Mexican Fransisco Lorenzo, to record the third defence of his WBF title.

The tournament will also feature a clash between SA super middleweight champion Tshepang Mohale and unbeaten upsart Thomas Oosthuizen (9-0, 7 Kos) for the WBA Pan African supermiddleweight crown.

Hekkie Butler will be defending his IBO African junior flyweight crown against Motswaki Moselesele.

Sapa

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