Malunga speaks on Manyuchi fight

Ellina Mhlanga : Sports Reporter

CHARLES Manyuchi’s manager at Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotions Chris Malunga says they are not leaving anything to chance ahead of his World Boxing Council welterweight voluntary title defence fight this month. The WBC welterweight silver champion takes on Frenchman Damien Martin on September 30 in Harare.Malunga said while they were happy with his warm-up match last week in Zambia, he feels they need to work more with Manyuchi to ensure he defends his title.

“He fought on Saturday. I think the opponent was too tough, a very strong opponent but he managed to drop him and that was good for us.

“But I feel that it is very important that we work more. More work has to be done towards Charles Manyuchi to make sure that we do not disappoint the Zimbabwean people.

“And I am so sure that my technical team headed by Mike Zulu is seriously looking at all that and they know what we expect out of them, which is to make sure that the boxer defends the title,” said Malunga.

Although he could not go into details about the boxer’s training programme, Malunga is confident of victory come September 30.

“The only thing I can say is he is ready for the fight but we need to work extra so that we have an upper hand and he can have an easy fight.

“We have done it before when we were going to Russia. We called him and we had to make sure that we put him in shape and make sure that he wins a WBC title fight. He has to defend because he saw it last week when Catherine (Phiri) defended her WBC gold by knocking out the best South African boxer in the first round.

“So even from him there is nothing else we are expecting, except a win and it’s not that win where you doubt. The Zimbabwean people must enjoy and it should be an impressive win,” said Malunga. Malunga also thanked the government for honouring Manyuchi early this week when they gave him a diplomatic passport.

“I must say thank you to the government of His Excellency President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde Robert Mugabe for recognising the boxer’s achievements by giving him a diplomatic passport.

“I feel that, that alone will motivate a lot of young boys and girls to take sport very serious,” said Malunga.