Mbulelo Botile
Mbulelo Botile (born 23 July 1972 in Duncan Village, East London) is a former 2-time world champion boxer from South Africa. Botile was a world champion in 2 different weight classes: bantamweight and featherweight.
Professional career
Botile turned pro in 1989 and won his first twenty-one bouts, including fifteen straight to set up a shot at the IBF Bantamweight title against Harold Mestre in 1995. Botile won with a second –round TKO. He successfully defended the title five times before losing the belt to Tim Austin in 1997, by a seventh-round TKO.
Botile moved up in weight and in 2000 took on IBF Featherweight title-holder Paul Ingle, winning the belt with a twelfth-round TKO. He lost a decision in his first defence against Frank Toledo in 2001 and then moved up to Super featherweight. He took on former champion Cassius Baloyi in 2002, losing by an eleventh-round TKO. Botile retired after the loss, but came back in 2005, only to be knocked out by Anthony Tshehla.
Botile later stated that the injuries caused to Paul Ingle, during the bout in 2000, had caused him such distress, that he had never felt focused on boxing again.
External links
| Preceded by Harold Mestre |
IBF Bantamweight Champion 29 Apr 1995– 19 Jul 1997 |
Succeeded by Tim Austin |
| Preceded by Paul Ingle |
IBF Featherweight Champion 16 Dec 2000– 6 Apr 2001 |
Succeeded by Frank Toledo |