Two-division titleholder Hekkie Budler is a fighter who had to work twice as hard to reach his desired goals and was able to show that hard work pays off.

Budler, who has two step siblings and a younger sister, was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, on May 18, 1988.

"We had a mother and father who worked hard to give us, not everything we asked for but everything they could have given us, we didn't have a real need in our lives," Budler told The Ring. "I was very lucky, my parents always supported me and tried to do as much as they could for me."

From a young age, Budler was extremely competitive and liked sports but found it difficult to accept defeat.

"When I was in school, I played one game of rugby and the team lost and I couldn't understand, these people weren't upset in losing," he said. "It upset me so much I didn't want to play with them anymore; I didn't want to be friends with them anymore. I stopped playing Rugby.

"Someone told my parents, I should do a sport where if I lost, I couldn't blame anybody else. My dad boxed and that's how I got into boxing. I think I was 7 years old. It turned my life around. I couldn't say it was his fault; I had to blame myself."

After Budler walked into the boxing gym for the first time, he knew it was where he wanted to be. However, it wasn't something that came naturally to him.

"I went to a very old school gym where you learn footwork and punching before you spar," he said before having his first fight at 9. "I always had to work harder than most because of my size, I wasn't fast, I wasn't good at anything else except boxing.

"I don't have the boxing talent some guys I grew up with. I've always had to work extra hard to win. I'm happy for that because I don't think I'd be the person I am today, if it wasn't for that."

Budler, who fought out of Booysens amateur boxing club, went on to have a productive amateur career claiming three national titles. He got onto the national team at 18 and fought overseas in Gabon, Namibia, Botswana and Thailand.

The youngster, who an impressive went 140-10 in the amateur ranks, had a fall out with the amateur governing body in his homeland and decided to turn professional at 19. He signed with trainer Colin Nathan and Rodney Berman's promotional outfit Golden Gloves.

Budler, made R3000, around $165 dollars, for his debut, a first-round stoppage over fellow debutant Michael Sediane on the undercard of the IBF junior lightweight eliminator between Cassius Baloyi-Manuel Medina, at Emperors Palace, Johannesburg, in July 2007.

After notching three wins inside the distance, he was afforded the opportunity to go to Canada and fight because of business relationship between Berman and Art Pelullo.

"I remember this fight so vividly because me and Colin had so much jetlag when we got there," he recalled of what turned into a character-building exercise. "Colin's bag went missing, and we had to go buy new clothes. We were walking shoulder-to-shoulder in the mall to stay awake.

"My opponent arrived the day of the fight because he flew into Canada and they didn't want him to cross the border, so they flew him back, but they drove him back. He weighed in and was heavier than me and we still fought.

"I hit him with a left hook in the first round, and he went down, his eyes rolled to the back of his head. I was busy walking back to my corner, me and Colin thought the fight was over, he got up and went the distance. I can't believe how he got up and went the distance. That's the first fight I won on points."

After 14 straight wins, Budler had two coming-of-age fights with grizzled Filipino veteran Juanito Rubillar (MD 12/SD 12) in 2010: "The second fight I thought I won much further than the judges scored it, I thought I won convincingly."

Next up, Budler headed to Laredo, Texas, to face tough Mexican Evaristo Primero.

"I thought, 'look at his record,'" said Budler, pointing to the likes of Mauricio Pastrana and Johnny Tapia. "I know he lost to these guys, and he was heavier than me. It was a close fight, but he gave me so much experience and taught me so much, so tricky and sneaky."

However, then Budler hit a bump in the road against Gideon Buthelezi at Emperors Palace, Johannesburg, in January 2011.

"It was a fight I was supposed to win; I beat him twice as an amateur, I was a massive favorite, but he beat me," he said holding his hands up. "We've very good friends. He was just better than me on the night, he beat me fair and square.

"It was hard because I hated losing. I had to learn to take it, that's the fight, I learnt there's always someone better out there. The people around me got me through it."

It proved a pivotal moment in his career and instead of fading away, he upped his game and scored notable wins over Michael Landero (UD 12), former IBF 105-pound titlists Florante Condes (UD 12) and Nkosinathi Joyi (UD 12).

Budler had the WBA title in his crosshairs but had to wait for his chance and instead fought for the Interim title but when Ryo Miyazaki headed to junior flyweight, he was upgraded to full champion.

"Karluis Diaz was my first defense," he said. "He was quite a good jabber, he had people who interviewed me said I was going to get knocked out, it was quite strange. We fought in the small hall because they had Eminem in the big hall, I was supposed to go but I couldn't because I had to fight.

"He hit me with a jab, a solid jab and my head went back and I got so upset that, I wanted to hit him with something and caught him with an overhand right and knocked him out cold [in the first round].

"After the fight, I was very worried, sitting in the room where they do testing because his manager was shouting at him to finish the testing because he lost feeling in his hands and feet. Then I found out, I was worried for nothing, it was just the concussion and there was nothing wrong with him. You never go in hurt someone but when you walk into the ring you go in there to hurt someone. It's a weird thing. You have to block it out."

The win also opened the door for Budler to fight three times in Monte Carlo over the next year against Pigmy Kokietgym (KO 8), Chaozhong Xiong (UD 12) and Jesus Silvestre (UD 12).

"To get the opportunity to go and fight in a place where money isn't an issue for the people who stay there, was one of the best experiences of my career," he said.

"I saw quite a lot of Monte Carlo ... but running. I don't like running on a treadmill, I like running in the street, catching the air, getting used to the air you're going to fight in.

"My wife went with us the last time I went, and she saw more of country than I did. I'm going there for work; it wasn't a holiday. I saw the hotel room, the restaurant we ate at and I saw the venue."

He returned home and bested tough compatriot Simpiwe Konkco (UD 12) before stunningly being derailed by unheralded Byron Rojas (L UD 12) at his home away from home Emperors Palace in September 2015.

"Another fight I should have won," he said regrettably. "I think honestly, I should have won quite easily, but he beat me, he was better than me on the night. I was supposed to walk through him."

Prior to that fight, Budler started to realize he had a breathing problem but turned a blind eye to the issue.

"It was getting worse and worse, and I never wanted to go to the doctor to go and see what the problem was," he said. "I didn't want it fixed because I didn't want them to tell me something was wrong. After the Byron Rojas fight, I went to the doctor and found out that I have asthma."

Budler and Nathan had a chat and decided to step up to junior flyweight and make another title run.

The South African got a pair of wins under his belt before heading Cebu City, Philippines to face IBF ruler Milan Melindo in September 2017.

"He 'knocked me down' [in round 12] he had three cuts, over the nose and eyes," explained Budler, who lost a highly contentious 12-round split decision. "I always used to get cuts, but I've never had a doctor come and look at me look at me and let my corner continue working on the cut. You walk to the neutral corner the doctor looks and then you fight. They kept doing this. It was very strange. He beat me, I'll take it, I lost, whatever.

"I was upset; Colin was more upset than me. I was sitting next to Colin on the plane on the way home and he was emailing [the IBF] people. He said, 'Hekkie, you're going to get a rematch. I'm not going to let this slide.' The IBF said they'll give us the rematch, but Melindo has already signed the contract to have a fight against [WBA titlist Ryoichi] Taguchi and we'll fight the winner, so we think, 'Why not, it'll be for more belts, more prestige.' So, we accepted it."

Taguchi dominated and beat Melindo by 12-round decision to unify the IBF and WBA titles and picked up the vacant Ring championship.

However, before Budler headed to Tokyo, Japan to meet Taguchi, he had to do some soul-searching.

"Taguchi was the first guy to go the distance with [Naoya] "Monster" [Inoue]," he said. "He was a tough guy, hadn't lost in how many years. I think I was a 19-1 underdog.

"I told Colin, 'Please, I need to speak to him in the office alone.' And me and Colin sat, and I asked him, 'Colin do you think I can win this fight?' And he said, 'Yeah, I think you can. We'll have a game plan, and your style can beat him.' I went into the fight confident and I got over the line.

"It's one of the top four achievements of my life. Having my child is No. 1, second is getting married, the third winning The Ring Magazine belt, which was my lifetime dream as a boxer and then winning the WBA title, was something special."

Eight-months after his greatest triumph, Budler headed back to Asia, this time to Macao, to face unbeaten Hiroto Kyoguchi.

"I would go for a run [in Macao] and couldn't breathe because the air was so polluted," he recalled. "It was my own fault; I didn't go through VADA to do the asthma test to use my asthma pump when I was fighting. I was not allowed to use my asthma pump for 10-days before the fight because I didn't go through VADA and didn't want to take the chance of getting tested.

"I had an asthma attack in the fourth or fifth round, Colin wanted to stop the fight. He asked me three times, 'I said, No, I'm fine, I'm OK.' but every time I breathed it was like a wheezing sound and in the 10th round, he told me, 'It's done.' I said, 'OK, but I want to get up walk to him and tell him, 'I'm done, you won.'"

The likeable South African's career ground to a halt over the next two-and-a-half years impacted by the Covid pandemic. He returned with a win in his native country that put him on course to fight for the WBC title.

First, he had to win an eliminator that meant going to Mexico to face former WBO 108-pound titlist Elwin Soto. And while Budler was no stranger to fighting on the road, he had to endure an arduous trip to reach Mexicali. He flew into Amsterdam and waited for several hours before an 11-hour flight and then a four-hour drive to reach his destination.

"I loved every second of it, it was such a cool experience," he said smiling. "I went there to be the loser, to get beaten up and for [Soto] to get the world title shot. It was one of the best places I've ever been for boxing. The people were great. When I went for a run, people would stop me and take photos and an autograph.

"It was a small venue, fighting in that ring with people so close was an exceptional experience. I watched some of his fights, I knew he could punch extremely hard. He actually caught me - he does know this - with a left hook to the body in the very first round and I was like 'phwoar.' I had nothing left in my body, I could barely breath, but I didn't want to show him that because I think he would have kept on punching. I think I won the fight by more rounds, but I was lucky enough to get the knockdown in the very last round. It was a good counter shot. I remember when I knocked him down, I looked at the referee and the referee looked at me and sent me to the corner. I didn't know if he was going to call it a knockdown. When he sent me to the corner, I knew I got the knockdown and definitely had the fight. The scoring was very close, I beat him by one point [on all three scorecards,] without the knockdown it would have been a draw but it was a good, hard fight. It was one of the best experiences of my career was fighting in Mexico."

Budler stayed busy at home before landing a fight with The Ring, WBA and WBC junior flyweight kingpin Kenshiro Teraji in Tokyo, Japan in September 2023.

"I thought I'm going there to win, I'm going to try my hardest," said Budler. "It didn't go my way; I was stopped [in Round 9] against one of the top fighters in the world now."

Despite the loss, the divisions elder statesman wasn't quite ready to walk away.

"Me and Colin didn't speak face-to-face for a while after that fight," recalled Budler (35-5, 11 knockouts). "The reason for that was he thought about me retiring. I didn't. I told him, 'Colin why don't we go down to strawweight?' I sent him these messages and told him we need to talk; I'd go to the gym, and he'd pack up and leave. I couldn't figure it out.

"One day, he said, 'Come, I want to have a meeting with you in the office.' I'm like, 'Yes, Colin has a fight lined up.' He sat me down and he said, 'Hekkie, I think it's time to call it [a day.] He told me what he saw in sparring, what he saw in training. I always promised, Colin, my parents and my wife, when we got married, if you see me slipping, my timing especially, [tell me] so I can get out of this game, so I can retire and still have a life after boxing. I told him, 'Can I do one thing?', I phoned my wife, and she cried, and I retired."

Budler, now 37, is married, has a young daughter and lives in Johannesburg. He trains a few people who want to stay in shape. He also bought mountain bikes to enjoy the outdoors with his wife. And he remains involved in boxing as a commentator.

He graciously took time to speak to The Ring about the best he fought in 10 key categories.

Kenshiro Teraji: "He was very pinpoint and accurate with his jab; he would always keep me at the right distance and that's why he got the result he did against me. He knows where to place his jab to off-load on that right hand. He keeps you at that distance. It's not a solid, hard jab, but it's a jab that keeps you where he wants you for the right hand."

Teraji: "The guy I hit the least was probably Kenshiro. It might not be that he had the best defense, but he defended the best against me that night."

Teraji: "Kenshiro was fast, he's got quite good hands. Gideon Butalezi beat me, had snappy hands. I think they had the fastest hands. I think Kenshiro would still have it."

Teraji: "If you got into his range, he'd do that slight jump back thing, and we worked on this. He's so tricky and good at it and knows how to get away with it and just stay where he wants."

Juanito Rubillar: "It's going to sound weird [because] I beat him twice. I think it's Juanito Rubillar because he would do things in the ring. I think it was something like my 16th fight. He was so experienced. He would hit me in the kidney, hit me in the back on the back of the head, come in and hit me with tricky uppercuts and overhand rights, hit me with shots I'm not supposed to get hit by. But he'd get away with it, because he's so clever."

Nkosinathi Joyi: "Physically, very strong guy. That's when I started to change my style. I liked to go forward and throw a lot of punches. In that fight, I knew I couldn't, I had to move, spin him, make him miss because he's so physically strong compared to me."

Florante Condes: "Very tough. I hit him with some pearlers, and he just kept coming and coming."

Renan Trongco: "He hit me with I don't know what in the third round and the next thing I remember was the seventh round. I can't remember what was said in the corner, I can't remember anything at all. It's the only time I can't remember. If you can't remember, you're knocked out. I was knocked out for four rounds. Kyoguchi hit me with a left hook. He was also a hard puncher. He knocked me down, but I got straight back up and the referee didn't call the knockdown and that was a very good shot. I got back up, and I was fine. I've been knocked down by a good shot and got back up, but that fight that I forgot the round is the hardest I've been hit."

Teraji: "His movement, his handspeed, his power, the way he could put everything together."

Teraji: "Taguchi was also very good, an honorable mention. I have to say Nkosinathi Joyi, he was a brilliant fighter. But Kenshiro was the top guy. He could box, he could fight, and he had a lot of power."

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk and you can follow him on X @AnsonWainwr1ght.