BET’s New South African TV Series ‘Pound 4 Pound’ Packs a Powerful Punch

Boxing league COO Lindiwe Mkhwanaz wants to take a boxing team to an all-women’s championship tournament in Nigeria. The only problem? Her all-male board doesn’t want her to. Their problem? She’s not going to give them a choice.

That battle of wits and wills is at the heart of Pound 4 Pound, a new drama set to premiere on BET tomorrow (Feb. 26) at 10 p.m. EST. Powered by a charismatic veteran cast and a script that tightropes comedy and drama, the South African-set series explores themes of resilience and redemption with a narrative efficiency and an unsparing eye for humanity.

Yesterday, I took in a special screening for the first two episodes of the show, which stars Enhle Mbali Mlotshwa as “Lindiwe Mkhwanaz,” whose late father is a famed local boxing coach. While she’s technically the COO of the National Boxing Federation of South Africa, the organization is a misogynistic one, and her own admirable, but unsanctioned staging of an unofficial boxing match gets her fired from the gig. After some savvy media maneuvering, she’s reinstated, but that’s just the beginning of her journey which could take her … well, everywhere, including to the depths of career ruin. But, as someone who wants proper attention for the world of women’s boxing, it’s a worthwhile risk.

I didn’t get the chance to sit with it for days on end, but my first thoughts were that Mlotshwa really holds things down in the lead role. Her balance of levity, solemn determination, and tightly modulated twitchy facial expressions bring authentic depth to an ambitious dreamchaser on the warpath against injustice, and perhaps, some of her own demons.

Then there’s Mduduzi Mabaso Mdakane as “DINGAAN ‘TIGER’ NKOSI,” a disgraced boxer with a chance to redefine his legacy after his own drunk driving accident ended his career years ago. Thus far, he’s mostly been moping around in the ashes of his past glory, and Mdakane brings a quiet intensity that evokes that struggle.

By the end of the second episode, Lindiwe and TIGER appear on the verge of a new partnership, which will see TIGER assume the role of the coach. Now, all they’ve got to do is find a team. How will that go? We’ll just have to wait and see.

You can check out the journey for yourself on BET tomorrow night.