John Nyalunga who was born on April 11, 1948 and fought from 1968 to 1978 captured the Transvaal and South African non-White light-heavyweight titles and the Transvaal heavyweight titles along the way.
He had his last fight against former South African white-heavyweight champion Mike Schutte who weighed in at 117 kg, at the Rand Stadium in Johannesburg on February 4, 1978 and was knocked out in the first round.
Nyalunga weighed in at a reported 92.63 kg which was possibly his heaviest ever.
However, with very few light-heavyweights around he had to take on heavyweights. And he ended up having a ten year career of frustration.
Known as John “Special” Nyalunga he fought out of Daveyton, Benoni and made his pro debut on February 28, 1969 with a fourth-round knockout over Tom Ndebele at the Kwa Thema Civic Centre in Springs.
Nyalunga had a powerful right hand winning 14 of his fights inside the distance and knocked out Johannes “Joe Walcott” Mahlangu a quality fighter, in the fifth round at the Atteridgeville Community Hall in Pretoria to win the South African non-White light-heavyweight title.
He was never really a heavyweight and fighting mostly as a blown-up light-heavyweight he had to take on men much heavier than him to keep busy as was the case in his fight with Simon “Man Mountain” Mathonsi who weighed nearly 102kgs.
They fought at the D H Williams Hall in Katlehong, Germiston on June 16 1972 with Nyalunga winning on a fifth round stoppage to take the Transvaal non-White heavyweight title.
As the provincial champion he qualified to challenge the South African non-White heavyweight champion Fraser “Burning Spear” Memela from the then Natal.
The met at Curries Fountain, Durban on July 14 1973, but Memela proved too big and strong and Nyalunga was counted out in the ninth round by referee Nick Venter.
Five months after this fight he was stripped of the South African light-heavyweight title for not defending.
Nyalunga was then inactive from July 1973 until June 20, 1975 when he returned to action against heavyweight Dely Sithebe at the Robosotho Hall in Tembisa and knocked him out at 2 minutes 17 seconds into the first round.
He only had one fight in 1976 a six rounds points win over Sydney Hoho the South African non-White middleweight champion in a non-title fight.
He had two fights in the then Salisbury in 1977 winning against Walter Ringo Starr and losing to Jaoao Afonso on points over ten rounds.
A little more than three months later he had his last fight against Mike Schutte and finished with a record 14-6; 10.
This was ten years of frustration for this talented fighters who early in his career had two fights within 24 hours and had long periods of inactivity between fights.
After retiring from boxing he continued to keep fit at the Lionel Kent Centre on the East Rand together with his Red Army Boys Club.
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