WINDHOEK – Internationally acclaimed boxing promoter Nestor “Sunshine” Tobias, has come out with guns blazing and told his old buddy Harry Simon in no uncertain terms where to get off.

Tobias was reacting to a question about the war of words between the former World Boxing Association (WBA) Middleweight champion and Wilberforce Shihepo, after Simon labeled the latter as a wrestler.

The war of words between the two boxers was triggered by Shihepo’s seemingly unquenchable desire to fight against the unbeaten former world champion.

Simon is irked by Shihepo’s persistence to challenge him and feels he has nothing to gain by fighting the muscular younger boxer, adding that the Black Mamba is not in his league and should rather concentrate on trying to build his somewhat fragile boxing career.

“People should forget about such a fight because the two are worlds apart, Shihepo is a young promising boxer, while Harry belongs in the dustbin of statistics. I take nothing away from Harry, he was a great boxer but his days in the boxing ring are numbered,” charged an irritated Tobias, before making a reference to the lukewarm showing of Namibian athletes at the recent 2012 London Olympics.

“Are we now going to demand that Frank Fredericks should come out of retirement and return to the athletics track for Namibia to have any hopes of winning medals at major sporting events,” he asked sarcastically. “Who’s Nestor by the way,” Harry retorted with undisguised bile.

“I remember him being a good fighter during our amateur days but when we turned professional in South Africa, he became a punching bag. I really appreciate his good work by promoting Namibian boxing but this is where it ends. He was an average boxer in the paid ranks and the reason why he went into early retirement was because of me, I damaged his eye during one of our sparring sessions. Not that I’m proud of that but the truth must come out,” Simon shot back.  

The irate Simon challenged his old buddy, Tobias, to come out of retirement and square off against him. He promised to beat the hell out of his former sparring partner since he wants to put the matter to rest once and for all.

“I’m a world-class boxer with no peers in local boxing. I still have big plans and those who doubt my boxing ability should revisit the record books because statistics don’t lie. The only way that they can persuade me to fight any local boxer is maybe when I lose two or three fights … hey, remember I’m still unbeaten,” boasted the Terminator.