IBO cruiserweight champion Kevin “Two Guns” Lerena has a strong claim to being South Africa’s best fighter at present, after making a record six successful defenses of his IBO belt. The only other South African cruiserweight to hold the IBO belt was Sebastiaan Rothmann who won the belt in October 2002 and after making one successful defense lost the belt in February 2004.

However, Thabiso Mchunu 22-5; 13 from KwaZulu-Natal would possibly dispute the claim that Lerena is the best cruiserweight in South Africa.

Mchunu, 32, who also fights from the southpaw stance has won the South African, African Boxing Union, North American Boxing Federation and WBC Silver cruiserweight titles. Mchunu is rated at No. 1 by the WBC and at No. 9 by the WBO. He is not listed in WBA and IBF rankings.

With the cost of rand against the dollar and pound, main organization title fights in South Africa are far too costly, so a clash between Lerena and Mchunu who is rated at #2 by the IBO, for the IBO belt would be a big attraction.

The first South African cruiserweight title fight, which is known as junior heavyweight in South Africa, took place on 31 October 1988 when Freddie Rafferty stopped Gideon Hlongwa in three rounds for the newly created division.

Lerena who was born in Johannesburg on 5 May 1992 is part of the well-known horseracing family and is a tactical medic in the Johannesburg area.

Having never fought as an amateur Lerena made his pro debut on 30 November 2011 with a second-round knockout win over Justice Siliga at Emperors Palace near Kempton Park where he has had 70% of his fights.

Fighting from the southpaw stance he won his next ten fights in style with seven coming inside the distance, which included winning the vacant WBF Africa cruiserweight belt with a second round technical knockout win over Ibrahim Labaran and the vacant WBC Youth Silver cruiserweight title on a second round knockout.

However, on 15 November 2014 against the odds he was outpointed over ten rounds by the more experienced Johnny Muller (16-4-2). The decision was unanimous with scores of 98-92 and 97-93 twice.

After this setback he took a keep busy fight against Igor Pylypenko (4-19-2) in Copenhagen, Denmark winning on points over six rounds with wide margins, before fighting at Emperors Palace his favorite venue, to win the South African cruiserweight title on a unanimous 12 rounds points decision over Deon Coetzee on 30 July 2015.

On 24 April 2016 he gained revenge over Johnny Muller winning on a tenth-round stoppage to retain the South African title and win the vacant WBA Pan African cruiserweight title.

Next up he scored victories over Roberto Feliciano (unanimous ten round decision) and Micki Nielsen (majority decision ten) in the Super 4 tournament at Emperors Palace.

In a closely fought contest on 9 September 2017, he beat Youri Kayembre Kalenga (23-3) from the DRC on a split decision to win the vacant IBO cruiserweight belt.

Since winning the belt Lerena has been in fine form making successful defenses of the belt against Roman Golovashchenko (ud 12), Dmytro Kucher (ud 12), Artur Mann (tko 4), Vasil Ducar (ud 12), Sefer Seferi (tko 3) and First Arslan (tko 6) in his last defense on 28 February this year, to take his record to 25-1; 12. He has now been presented with the prestigious IBO Championship ring.

The superbly conditioned Lerena, who is trained and managed by former fighter Peter Smith, is one of the best-conditioned athletes around and at this stage, he has run out of opponents defending his IBO belt.

Lerena is highly rated by three major organizations, at No. 2 (WBA), No. 3 (IBF) and at No. 6 by the WBC. He is not listed by the WBO.

There are big fights out there for him against WBA super champion, Arsen Goulamirian (France), WBA secondary champion, Beibut Shumenov (Kazakhstan), WBA interim champion Ryad Merhy (Côte D’Ivoire), IBF champion Yuniel Dorticos (Cuba) and WBC belt holder Ilungu Makabu (DRC). The WBO title is vacant.

However, Lerena would have to travel overseas to meet any of the aforementioned champions.