Monalisa accuses opponent of using drugs

Lusaka on Friday, has made sensational claims accusing her opponent of doping.
Sibanda retired from the square ring in the seventh round of their scheduled 10-round match for the Women International Boxing Organisation and the Women International Boxing Association light-welterweight belts held by Phiri.
The Zimbabwean pugilist appeared to have fared well in the first round but a punch from Phiri in the second round unsettled her. Sibanda tried, however, to match Phiri blow for blow until the fifth round but was pummelled into submission in the sixth round before she retired in the seventh. But Sibanda courted some controversy after the defeat to her former sparring partner when she made sensational claims that Phiri uses performance-enhancing drugs.
However, Phiri’s trainer Antony Mwamba has dismissed Sibanda’s claims as unfounded and charged that she was just a bad loser.
“I think I did well in the early rounds but lost the plot in the fifth round. During the early stages I could take the punches from Phiri but from the fifth round I felt real pain. I knew Esther because I’ve trained with her before and she was not the same person after the fifth round.
“She hit me on the diaphragm in the second round but I think I lost mentally because the results for her medicals had not been produced. So because of her power, I kept thinking that she was on drugs and that why is resigned,” said Sibanda yesterday.
Sibanda created a furore in Zambia after the fight when she demanded that Phiri should undergo a doping test. According to the Zambian Post, Sibanda refused to accept her defeat to Phiri.
“I don’t accept the defeat, we must go for doping (test). She was not normal, I know her. I know Esther very well, we have been doing sparring and everything together but in the ring she was a different person not because of training. I do sparring with men and world champions in South Africa, not only Esther,” Sibanda told the Post. Sibanda also believes the psychological warfare by the Zambians also contributed to her defeat. She was offered a purse money of US$2 000 (10 million kwacha) yet she had spent much more during her preparations for the title fight.
“I was just demoralised by a number of things. In boxing, medicals are done before the fights and the results (are) produced but this was not the case with Phiri and that’s why I said she could have taken anything,” she said. Sibanda yesterday said she would pick up her pieces and resume light training this week.
“I have to wait 28 days before I can get back into the ring again for a fight. Although I am bitter that I lost, I also have to look ahead,” said Sibanda.
Sibanda’s trainer Clyde Musonda believed that their poor preparations contributed to the defeat.
“We had to struggle with our preparations because we did not have any sponsorship . . . Phiri had the corporate world taking care of her for a month in camp,” said Musonda. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Misheck Kondwani lost on points to Nelson Banda in a supporting lightweight fight on Saturday in Lusaka.