“I STILL love everything about this sport,” Hekkie Budler, 35-4 (11), tells Boxing
News with a smile plastered across his face. It’s an ebullient and earnest smile that lights up his living room in Johannesburg, South Africa, replacing his trademark, exuberant hairstyle which today is unusually modest.
Budler is deep in training camp ahead of his first world title fight since 2018. On Monday night (September 18) in Tokyo, Japan, the 35-year-old will take on the light-flyweight world champion, Kenshiro Teraji, 21-1 (13). A win inside the Ariake Arena would cement Budler’s legacy as one of South Africa’s greatest ever boxers.
“It’s been a hard camp, but probably one of the most enjoyable and best of my career to date,” he continues. “I am feeling better and better with age. It’s weird. I am following a new diet now where I eat little and often, and along with
