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August 16 will go down as a historic day for female boxing in Africa after Bernice “The Badger” Ferreira’s humongous achievement of becoming the continent’s first ever unified world champion. She achieved the feat at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, in the US, during a month celebrated in South Africa to honour the 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on August 9 1956 in protest against unjust pass laws. National Women’s Day is celebrated on August 9. Ferreira, the IBO junior lightweight holder, whose belt was on the line on Sunday morning, added the WBC belt to her collection after dethroning defending champion Caroline “Caro” Veyre. French-born Veyre, who fights out of Montreal, was disqualified in round eight for constant holding. Veyre had been warned before and lost two points for excessive holding, and the referee finally had enough and stopped the fight. Ferreira is the first local female boxer since the first major women’s professional boxing tournament was held in South Africa in 2007 to win the lucrative WBC belt. Ferreira remains undefeated after 12 fights. She is from Fietas, a once bustling and thriving area that incorporates the suburbs of Pageview and Vrededorp on the western edge of Johannesburg but now faces significant challenges with a high rate of homelessness, crime, poverty, prostitution and drug abuse. Trainer Bernie Pailman’s role as cut man was upgraded to head cornerman for the fight as Ferreira’s trainer Arafaat Kock could not travel to Atlanta. Apart from guiding Ferreira to a WBC belt, Pailman has produced his own champs, including helping Malcolm “The Stone” Klassen win both the IBF junior lightweight world title in 2009 and IBO belt in 2016. Former IBF mini flyweight world champ US-based Deejay Kriel was also part of the winning team. Successful trainer-cum-manager Colin “Nomakanjani” Nathan’s No Doubt Management also produced its first WBC champ, having guided fighters to winning IBO, IBF, WBA, WBO and The Ring belts. Speaking from her hotel room, Ferreira said: “It feels amazing — like a dream come true. I was praying for this moment and praying that people would notice me, and it still hasn’t sunk in yet.” Asked what was next for her, she replied: “I don’t know — you must ask my manager. Whoever they put in front of me, I will fight.” Said Nathan: “Exactly a year ago, Ferreira was not even a South African champion. “The sport of dreams — fast forward to now: history was written and a career was changed. South Africa, stand up and clap for Bernice “The Badger” Ferreira, our first female South African and African unified world champion." Sowetan