Nkosi Ndebele reveals terrifying near-death experience of being jumped by 8 boys
Next month in Bogota, Colombia Nkosi Ndebele will challenge for the BRAVE CF bantamweight championship but the path till the most prestigious moment of his professional career was a bumpy one.
The 28-year-old will walk into the August 12 event with his head held high as he attempts to knock off Jose Torres and claim the gold. In terms of adversity, though, he’s been through far worse on his road to the top.
With his father passing away when he was a young boy, Nkosi was raised by his mother. He had siblings on both sides of his family with one of his sisters passing away back in 2012. Despite this, he was able to persevere, and he always credits the fact that he was raised in church as a defining factor behind his staying out of trouble.
He maintained good, strong values, but as a teenager, that didn’t help prevent more obstacles from coming his way. No other experience, though, compares to the one Nkosi himself describes as the most traumatic of his life.
“There was a time I was literally beaten by eight boys”, he recalled. “At the school you know? I couldn’t see for the next few hours. That’s how badly I was beaten by the boys. They beat me so bad… and I remember one of the guys, while others were busy kicking me in the face, trying to stab me.”
“He was carrying a knife and trying to stab me”, Nkosi continued. “And because of how a lot of guys were just on top of me, he couldn’t find a space to stab me. All the guys then came in to help me, but by then the damage was done. It was done. Luckily, I wasn’t stabbed. I just couldn’t see for an hour, and I went to the doctor. That’s when I knew I had to learn to defend myself. I was around 14 or 15 at that time.”
Hardship is part of life. Still, Nkosi Ndebele has been forced to endure more of it than most, and yet he’s managed to come out the other side as a world class athlete. On August 12, in Bogota, Colombia, the ride he started immediately after that fateful day can reach a glorious end. For this, Nkosi will have to beat Jose “Shorty” Torres and claim the Bantamweight world title.
