When the Rainbow Turns Black by Peter Venison

Author:Peter Venison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Published: 2022-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty Two

The fight for the vacant WBA world heavyweight belt was scheduled to take place in the largest rugby stadium in Johannesburg, which normally accommodated 70,000 spectators. Given that this was a boxing match, the capacity could be boosted even further by placing thousands of seats on the turf, surrounding the boxing ring. Although Gerrie’s reputation had been somewhat tarnished with his first minute knockout at the hands of Rocky Jones, he still boasted a fantastic record of 14 wins, one draw, and one loss. Nobody else in the heavyweight division had such a good record, except, of course, his challenger, the White Assassin. Lance, of course, had had far fewer professional bouts, but he was still undefeated.

Never before, in the history of the professional game, had two South Africans been ranked so high. The local interest in the fight was at fever pitch. Gerrie had been quite right. Johannesburg was the natural venue for this event. In America or Europe, the interest would have been negligible.

The nation was torn. Most sporting fans in the country, at least the white ones, were proud of Gerrie Van der Merwe, the first Afrikaans man to have held the world title. But Gerrie, as a public figure, was quite difficult to relate to. He certainly was not a PR man’s dream. In interviews he came across as a nice young man, but not a terribly interesting one. On the other hand, his opponent, Lance, was the darling of the Afrikaans community, particularly, the women. His frequent appearances on the radio and television had boosted his popularity enormously. His comments were always controversial and direct. Sometimes he could be very funny. He was the PR man’s dream. Needless to say, in the weeks before the fight, Lance absolutely milked his popularity. He was ruthless in his scorn for his opponent; he exuded confidence.

Many pundits, of course, commented that pride comes before a fall, so, popular as he was, most of the money at the bookies had been placed upon Gerrie to win. It appeared that the public were not fooled by all of Lance’s boastful talk; they just enjoyed it. His sister, Bibi, was, of course, a great help. Everyone knew that Gerrie was married to Miss World, even though they were puzzled by this relationship. Everyone also knew that Lance, despite all of his big talk, was actually managed by his sister, and most people thought that Bibi was the sexiest thing on two legs. Many wondered why she had not been snapped up by a wealthy suitor. Lance always had a different girl on his arm, but none came close to the sex appeal of his glamourous sister. The team of Bibi and Lance in the television studios was just electric.

The whole of South Africa held their breath in anticipation as the two large white men climbed through the ropes to be introduced. There was a carnival atmosphere in the stadium. A South African crowd at a rugby match can be awesome; this was a level beyond.

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