Recent Case: General Principles and Specific Offences

• Citation: (2024) 37 SACJ 127
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v37/i1a6
• Published date: 21 August 2024
• Pages: 127-140
• Author: Van der Linde, D.
• Date: 21 August 2024

General principles and specic

offences

DELANO VAN DER LINDE

Faculty of Law, University of Stellenbosch

1 Consent to injury

1.1 Influencer boxing tournaments

The court in Tikbox League (P ty) Ltd v Du Toit 2024 (3) SA 198 (GP)

(‘Tikbox’) was tasked with deter mining the legalit y and enforceability

of a contract which involved the hosting and promoting of unregulated

boxing events between social media in uencers (at paras [3], [5], [13]).

These sorts of events began when the r st respondent allegedly realised

that disputes between social media i nuencers could be exploited by

arranging boxing tournaments between them (at paras [7], [10]–[11]).

Inuencer boxing tournaments, despite the rst respondent’s

attempt to characterise this business venture as novel, have become

commonplace in (particularly) the United States. These tournaments

sometimes even involve professional boxers. (see R Mirza ‘Tommy

Fury defeats frust rated KSI by majority decision in controversial

Manchester ght’ Sky Sports, 15 October 2023, available at https://www.

skysports.com/box ing/news/12183/12984625/tommy-fury-defeats-

frustrated-ksi-by-majority- decision-in-controversial-manchester-

ght). It was even reported earlier this year that one of the biggest

pay-per-view ghts of the previous year was an inuencer match

(see AS Mann ‘ ‘‘Somebody will die”: Rise of inuencer boxing sparks

safet y fears’ Sky Sports, 18 February 2 024, available at htt ps:// new s.

sky.com/story/somebody-will-die-rise-of-influencer-boxing-sparks-

safety-fears-13073838#:~:text=It%20consists%20of%20p opular%20

YouTubers,to%20be%20into%20the%20millions). In his judgment,

LeGrange AJ posited that, in its nature, inuencer boxing is merely a

modern version of ancient duelling (Tikbox at para [14]). Boxing itself

has ancient roots, and the rst traces of the sport seem to emerge

sometime between 1500 and 1600 BC (see RG Beran and JR Beran

‘The law(s) of the rings: Boxing and the law’ (2009) 16 J Law & Med

684at 686; K Boddy Boxing: A Cultural Histor y (2009) 1 at 1–2). A key

RECENT CASES

https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v37/i1a6

127

(2024) 37 SACJ 127

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