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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
UNHERALDED Bulawayo heavyweight pugilist Trevor Mpofu has signed for Harare-based No Pain, No Gain Boxing Stable in desperate efforts to get his career back on track.
The 23-year-old boxer, who trains at Makokoba’s Tshaka Youth Centre under renowned trainer Philip “Striker” Ndlovu, said he moved to the Clyde Musonda-powered No Pain, No Gain stable in September.
The Harare stable facilitated Mpofu’s baptisim of fire in professional boxing last month when he faced Aleck Gogoda in the supporting bout of Zimbabwean World Boxing Council (WBC) silver welterweight champion, Charles Manyuchi’s non-title fight against Colombian opponent Jose Agustin Julio Feria.
Mpofu, a former sparring partner to former Pan-African World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Thamsanqa Dube, lost to Gogoda in the first round.
“I’m really itching to get back into the ring and fight. I’ve signed for No Pain, No Gain Boxing Stable in Harare who I believe will help me get my career off the ground.
“They organised a fight for me last month which I lost because of rust. I’ve been working hard with coach Striker (Ndlovu) here in Bulawayo with the hope of getting a fight before the end of the year,” said Mpofu.
He said he has worked on his shortcomings against Gogoda.
“The mistake I made against Gogoda was that I dropped my guard and then he caught me with a heavy punch which was followed by combination of punches. I didn’t get time to respond and lost the game on a technical knockout.
“I would love to have a rematch because I don’t think I deserved to lose. The other thing is that I had shoddy preparations for that fight, only training for less that three weeks before we fought,” said Mpofu.
Mpofu drew public attention last year when he challenged Dube, the most feared heavyweight pugilist, for a fight.
Musonda tried to promote the Dube-Mpofu bill which failed to materialise due to lack of funding.
Mpofu reiterated yesterday that he is keen to fight Dube who has struggled to get challengers since 2011.
“On any day I’ll fight Thamu (Dube) and if there are promoters out there who are willing to get us in the ring I would be happy,” he said
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