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Johannesburg - Nkosinathi Joyi, who narrowly lost to Hekkie Budler for the IBO strawweight title at Emperors Palace on Saturday night, has an opportunity to claim another IBO title.
Golden Gloves promoter Rodney Berman announced on Tuesday that Joyi would meet junior bantamweight champion Edrin Dapudong on the Golden Gloves' forthcoming bill at Emperors Palace in August.
"Joyi deserves to be rewarded for the role he played in the engrossing battle against Budler," said Berman.
"I've secured him a title shot against Dapudong at the heavier junior bantamweight limit after concluding negotiations with Siphato Handi."
Dapudong gained ample revenge for a highly questionable points title defeat against Gideon Buthelezi seven months ago, with a stunning first-round revenge knockout victory over the South African on Saturday.
"This will be a true crowd-pleaser after the clinical manner in which the Filipino dismantled Buthelezi," Berman said.
"As for a return meeting with Budler, maybe we'll think about it sometime in the future, but not right now."
Meanwhile, Handi, Joyi's trainer-manager, said a complaint about the judge's decision in the Budler fight had been forwarded to the IBO, with the request that it order a rematch between South Africa's two top-10 ranked fighters.
"The German judge had Nkosinathi a clear-cut 116-112 winner, so I can't fathom what the other two gentlemen were thinking," said Handi.
However, Handi appeared to have been appeased by the offer for a fight with Dapudong. He however admitted that Joyi, who was once rated the top strawweight fighter in the world by Ring magazine, was not at his best and might have seen his best days as a boxer.
"At 23 or 24, Nkosinathi would have knocked Budler in a couple of rounds," said Handi.
"At the age of 30, he is still a far more accomplished boxer than Budler."
Berman had earlier promised that the winner of the Budler-Joyi fight would be matched with either WBC champion Xiong Zhong of China or Japan's Katsunari Takayama in a unification strawweight title showdown -- also possibly on the August programme at Emperors Palace.
It now appears, no finality has yet been reached with either the WBC or IBF champions to fight in South Africa.
