As a child born and raised in South Africa, Thomas Oosthuizen, dreamed of fighting in New York City. Even at a young age, it was not difficult for him to understand what that meant. His father was Charles Oosthuizen; the pride of South African boxing, and their middleweight champion. Thomas idolized his father, and it wasn’t long before he laced up the gloves himself to continue in his father’s footsteps.
Despite being the son of a hero, Oosthuizen did not take the easy road up the rankings. Since turning professional in 2008, he has compiled a 19-0-1 record against some stiff opposition. Observers of the sport have grown accustomed to fighters facing off against poor opposition in their early years. Oosthuizen did not take this route. Instead, his opponent’s record in his first twenty fights was 197-46-7, which is a 78.8% win percentage. To put that into perspective, former Olympic gold medalist and current #1 super middleweight in the world, Andre Ward, faced opponents with a 79.9% winning percentage in his first twenty fights.
Oosthuizen faces a very tough test on Thursday night when he defends his IBO super middleweight title against Rowland Bryant (16-1, 11 KO’s). Bryant is coming off of a shocking third round TKO victory over Librado Andrade. Thursday night’s showdown is the best Broadway Boxing event New York has seen in some time.
“It’s the heart of Boxing in the world,” stated Oosthuizen on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference. “Before coming here, I told my sponsor that I couldn’t imagine that I would be here.”
Oosthuizen credits his success to his training. He is trained by Harold Volbrecht, another South African hero who is no stranger to guiding a fighter to the United States. “The easy work comes on [fight night],” stated Oosthuizen at a press conference on Tuesday. Train hard enough and the fights will be the easiest part.
The co-feature of the evening features the ever-improving Sean Monaghan (14-0, 9 KO’s) against George Armenta (14-9, 11 KO’s). If Mr. Armenta happens to be reading this, don’t point out any flaws. “It insults me and then it motivates me,” stated Monaghan on Tuesday. What does he do when motivated? “He trains three times a day half the week, and twice a day the other half,” stated Monaghan’s trainer.
Monaghan had a short amateur career of fewer than twenty fights before turning professional. Many pundits have been quick to make judgments on Monaghan’s style without realizing that he is still an extremely young boxer. With only about fifteen amateur fights and fourteen professional fights, Monaghan is as inexperienced as they come. The improvements that Monaghan has made in his technique and approach to boxing are amazing when things are put into perspective. He expects to showcase new improvements to his arsenal on Thursday against Armenta, who has long experience against young and undefeated fighters.
Managhan’s last statement at Tuesday’s press conference was a confident, “I got more to show you.”
Also on the card will be a number of the New York area’s most exciting and popular fighters, including Boyd Melson (8-1, 4KO’s), Floriano “L’ Italiano” Pagliara (13-4-1, 7KO’s), former amateur standout Zach Ochoa (1-0, 1KO), and Heather Hardy in her professional debut.
Tickets are priced at $125, $85, $65, and $45, and are on sale now. Tickets can be purchased through any Ticketmaster outlet, visiting Ticketmaster.com, or calling (800) 745-3000.
