Businessman Johnny Khubana never tires of innovative ways and ideas of bringing entertainment to the people.

Khubana, of JTK Promotions, is known as a music promoter, but has been showing a keen interest of late in developing sport. He is now promoting Musangwe or bare-knuckle fistfighting, which has been very popular in the Venda area for many years.

In an attempt to promote this ancient sport, which has been used as a pastime and to groom boys to be men during the herding of livestock, he staged a tournament at the weekend. The tournament, which drew fighters and enthusiasts from far-flung villages in Venda, took place at the newly opened Mahlambandlopfu Entertainment Centre at Makumeke in the Malamulele area.

Those who attended never had a dull moment as fighters battled it out for honours in 46 fights, and a new champion was also crowned during the tournament.

Khubana said he wanted to take the sport to another level. "Bare-knuckle fighting was perceived as the domain of the Vhavenda. For the first time we have brought it to Makumeke, so as to mix the Vhavenda and Vatsonga. This is a catalyst for unity between the two tribes who used to stay together, but were divided among ethnic lines by the apartheid government. As you can see, many local people came and participated and we spent the whole day interacting and building relationships," he said.

Khubana said the sport was also a way of taking the youth from the streets as there was never a dull moment during the fights. “Schools are closed and boredom breeds ill thinking, which could drive our youth into bad things that could destroy their future. After participating in this sport, one goes home tired and does not have time to do wrong things," he said.

Mr Patrick Ramaraga, who is the president of the sport, said he was excited about the outcome of the tournament. "This is our first tournament here and we did not anticipate such an attendance, but what we see here today is very encouraging. We are doing this with venues rotating and the attendance here means there is a bright future for the sport in this area," he said.