Australian-based former South African boxer
Lovemore Ndou, who apart from winning three world titles, also boasts
University Degrees in Law, Communications and Psychology, along with numerous
other diplomas and certificates, says he is ready to make his MMA debut on
December 1st at the Panthers Club in Newcastle, where he will fight
for the Combat 8 Featherweight title against Aswin Cabuy.
Ndou was supposed to fight Rivan Cessaire
in Melbourne but had to pull out of that fight in the last minute after he
suffered food poisoning right after the weigh-in, which saw the veteran fighter
admitted in a hospital in Melbourne.
The soft-spoken Ndou who had recently made
a comeback to raise funds for youth centres and the orphans of HIV AIDS saw
that as just a minor setback which he vowed would never stop him in his tracks
to fight the good fight.
When Ricky Hatton’s comeback was announced,
Ndou’s name was thrown around as the potential opponent for Hatton’s first
comeback fight. Ndou was open to the challenge and made it clear that he was going
to donate every penny from that fight to the orphans of the HIV AIDS epidemic
in South Africa.
Ndou missed out on that fight as Hatton instead
opted to take on the Ukrainian
Vyacheslav Senchenko, but that’s when Ndou decided to make a move to MMA
and continue fighting for the children of the world.
“I’m kinda excited about it and I don’t
think it’s by coincidence that I’m having my MMA debut at age 41,” Ndou told
World Boxing News.
“I was 14 years old when I started boxing
and when you reverse 14 or read it backwards it becomes 41. If you do the same
with 41 it becomes 14. I believe it was meant for me to start MMA at this age.
“At this age I have gone back to the age I
started boxing but instead I’m starting a new sport.
“I have been boxing for 27 years and I’m
starting to get bored in this sport. I don’t find it as challenging anymore,
despite my love for it. I love challenges and boxing doesn’t tickle my brain anymore
like it used to.
“When I go to a boxing gym, I don’t scratch
my head like I used to when I leave the gym. That’s because everything I’m
being taught I already know. A trainer might remind me to do something that I
have forgotten to do or stopped doing but that’s not like teaching me something
I don’t already know. There is nothing I don’t know after 27 years in this
sport.
“It’s different with MMA because it is a
whole new world for me. I am a novice and I find it a challenge every day which
is what I crave and live for. Every day in the last two and half months that I
have been doing MMA I have enough reasons to scratch my brain when I get home
after training and I’m loving it.
“When I set my mind on something I always
give it my 100%. I have hired the best team in MMA in Igor Brakenback from the
Bondi Junction gym to teach me. Igor is an expert and a master at what he does.
I have never seen anyone that’s so patient like Igor. He might teach you
something twenty times and in that twenty times get it wrong each time he still
won’t lose his cool. He will continue to teach you until you get it right.
“My dream is to someday win the UFC title
and I believe I will. I know some people think I’m fooling myself but watch me.
I know boxing only forms a little part of MMA but I’m working really hard to
master the other parts of mixed martial arts.
“In fact, don’t be surprised if I win my
next fight by submission. I’m not coming into UFC to make a fool out of myself
like James Toney did against Randy Couture. The minute Toney was taken down he
didn’t know what to do and that was the end of the fight. He had no idea about
hip escaping or surviving on the ground. In fact, he came into that fight so
fat and heavy Couture didn’t really have to work hard to keep him on the
ground. His excessive weight kept him on the ground. It’s called the ‘force of
gravity’ and it pulls you down to the ground.
“What Toney did in that fight was in fact
embarrass the whole boxing community. The best boxer in the world got his ass
whipped in 90 seconds by a 47 year old MMA veteran. That won’t happen with me.
I’m working hard in the gym to make sure I don’t embarrass the boxing
community.
“Apart from that I’m well aware that only
the rules of the jungle apply in the cage. No Broughton rules or Marquis of the
Queensbury rules apply in there. It’s survival of the toughest. You get eaten
alive if you are weak. I have never lost a street fight so I don’t expect to
lose in a dirty fight.”
*Ndou will again be donating his entire purse to a
chosen children’s charity.