Online Reporter
Lovemore Dube, [email protected]
CLYDE Musonda who is trying to bring the first professional boxing tournament to Bulawayo says hosting a bill in the City of Kings is honouring yesteryear greats.
“We have to honour Bulawayo’s yesteryear greats hoping that can inspire the next generation of boxers. Bulawayo was at some stage the hub of Zimbabwean boxing with a lot of talented boxers some of whom were dominant forces. If we do not bring tournaments to Bulawayo those legends will be forgottern,” said Musonda whose Deltaforce Promotions stable arrives in the city this afternoon for more explaratory work ahead of their forthcoming event.
Their mission is to finalise on the venue and other logistics ahead of their Trade Fair time boxing extravaganza next month.
“We have identified one or two places as potential venues for the tournament. It is going to be a big event that should announce the return of professional boxing to Bulawayo. Boxers are hungry for fights and so are our boxing fans. Bulawayo people have loved boxing from the days of Jimmy Ellis, Kid Power, Dave Wellings, Bright Spider and Kilimanjaro right up to the time of Jeff Dube when they dominated the three middleweight divisions with Fredrick Chisoro champion in the light middle weight, Ambrose Mlilo (middleweight) and Sipho Moyo (super middleweight).
“Bulawayo had heavyweights Tony ‘Bollo’ Benson and Thamsanqa Dube, even Elvis ‘Bomber’ Moyo who is into mixed martial arts is from Bulawayo, Nokuthula Tshabangu, Trust Ndlovu, Commonwealth aspirants Jabulani Gombiro and Bright Spider, we have to keep the legacy of champions flourishing with regular activity. Bulawayo boxers inspired us,” said Musonda.
The proposed boxing bill, Musonda said will be a mixed bag of Bulawayo sons and daughters, top national boxers and some from outside the country.
“We want it to be an event to savour and when the boxing board makes a formal announcement, the line up will be one of the best by any promoter anywhere in Zimbabwe. We want to attract the nation back to boxing,” said Musonda.
Boxing used to attract crowds to stadia. In the 1980s several tournaments were held at Rufaro Stadium and big municipal halls and parks.
