The Dube Boxing Club is synonymous with that daunting task of producing one of the best and celebrated boxer in our lifetime, Jacob “Baby Jake” Matlala. Matlala was one of the most recognisable figures to ever grace our Boxing ring. He might not be visible in the crowd area and the ring because of his height, but, you must be over-careful of his jabs, left-right and the upper-cut or you may hit the canvass and could not continue.
Baby Jake’s punches kept us glued on the small screen on many weekends. It became fashionable and part of our culture and leisure to watch television on Sundays with a vigour to watch the likes of Baby Jake, Johny du Plooy, Jan Bergman, Ditau ‘Diarora’ Moerane, Thulani ‘Sugarboy’ Malinga, Peter ‘Tsipa’ Skhosana, Dingaan Thobela, Harold Volbrecht, Brian Mitchell and many more who made our boxing ring a centre-stage of outstanding personalities in the country and the world.
The outstanding personalities we’ve just mentioned above epitomised South Africa as one of the best boxer producing country. Our country’s flag has been flying high internationally and this made us all proud as South Africans, because of the legend in a small package and many more in his stature.
We celebrate his contribution whilst he is still with us. You are a legend, a hero, a living monument of boxing in South Africa.
Yesterday we prayed for Matlala to bring the International belt home, we needed him as a country. Today, he needs us. Let us offer our collective wisdom as South Africans and extend a warm hand of appreciation to this hero and do anything in our power to help Baby Jake.
I believe, we owe Matlala a lot as a nation. He showed us those left, right punches coupled with uppercuts and returned to shores of this country with many belts and trophies. He made us proud in difficult and happy moments of our lives and put us high in the world centre-stage.
Get well Baby Jake. We need you to invest your experience to the grassroots.
