South African boxer Dingaan Thobela, ‘The Rose of Soweto,’ dies aged 57

By The Associated Press

FILE — Defending champion Eric Lucas, right, serves an uppercut to South Africa's Dingaan Thobela, left, during the WBC super middleweight championship on Nov. 30, 2001 in Montreal, Canada. Thobela, a two-weight world champion known as "The Rose of Soweto," has died. He was 57. (AP Photo/Paul Chiasson, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Paul Chiasson]

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African boxer Dingaan Thobela, a two-weight world champion known as “The Rose of Soweto,” has died. He was 57. The ministry of sports confirmed his death on Tuesday. Thobela won the WBO lightweight title in 1990 and the WBA lightweight title in 1993, when he beat American Tony Lopez in a rematch. He moved up to super-middleweight and beat Britain’s Glenn Catley for the WBC belt with a 12th-round stoppage in 2000. Thobela was widely popular in his home country as his rise coincided with South African boxing’s heyday in the 1980s and 1990s as apartheid was coming to an end.