The former South African boxing world champion Dingaan Thobela was found dead on Monday night in his home Johannesburg at the age of 57, after suffering health problems, confirmed a friend of the deceased.
“Strangely, he did not answer his phone and his family, accompanied by the Police, managed to access his place of residence and discovered that he had died,” he told local media late on Monday. Eddie Mutungutungu friend of Thobela.
The athlete, known as the ‘Rose of Soweto’ the former black ghetto of Johannesburg where he was born in 1966, he boxed professionally between 1990 and 2006 and held three world titles in two categories.
Thobela was World Boxing Organization (WBO) lightweight world champion between 1990 and 1992, a title also awarded to him in 1993 by the World Boxing Association (WBA), as well as world heavyweight champion. super middleweight in the year 2000 of the World Boxing Council (WBC).
Social networks were flooded this Tuesday with messages of condolence for the death of the beloved boxer, joined by the South African Government, which described him as a legend”.
“Saddened to learn of the death of the Rose of Soweto. With great regret, we offer our deepest condolences to the family. May the memories of Dingaan Thobela bring them comfort,” said the South African Executive through the social network X.