As you may know, I’ve always been crazy about boxing - watching it, following the stories of boxers, trying to understand what drives them to get into a ring where they could be smashed to smithereens.
I’ve even gone so far as to visit Golden Gloves, one of South Africa' s most famous boxing gyms in Jozi where
I hung out with boxers, trying to read their miiiiiinds in between packing some punches myself.
There’s always been one very important thing missing from boxing stories and gyms though: girls!
And now SABC1’s taking care of the problem with a new drama series, JAB.
It’s produced Community Trust Media who made the 2014 drama Amaza and it premieres on Friday, 12 February - in Forced Love’s timeslot at 20h30.
The story centres round 19-year-old Bee who gets thrust into the world of professional boxing when she finds herself needing to fight for money.
Bee lives in the township of Langa in Cape Town with her mother and disabled brother Mandla and takes up boxing as a way to escape her troubles and find solace from her world.
When her family face the threat of losing their home she decides to turn professional to fight for moolah and surprises everyone because she kicks such butt.
The series follows her as she tackles the dangerous world of professional boxing, on a mission to make it to the top.
Bee’s played by newcomer Vanessa Ntlapo, who went through intense boxing training for the role.
She’s also been guided by Rushda Mallick, a professional boxing champ and the show’s resident boxing choreographer.
The boxing chick-fest is rounded out by the show’s producer and director Lucilla Blankenberg who trained as a kickboxer for years.
Also in the cast are Montana's Mzu Ntantiso, who plays Bee’s brother Mandla, and Forced Love's Lemogang Tsipa, who plays local gangster Smiley, who has an interest in Bee’s boxing career.
Faniswa Yisa plays Bee's mother Gladys and Zingi Mtuzula takes on the role of her boxing coach, Conference Johnson.
All in all it looks very promising especially because it has this cool tagline:
“This is not a story about boxing or winning, it’s about the courage to fight - in life and in the ring.”