Online Reporter
Ray Bande in Mutare
THE Pride of Mutare tournament, a competition where the men’s World Boxing Federation Africa super-featherweight and the women’s WBF international super-flyweight titles are at stake, rolls into life today at Mutare Sports Club.
The event starts at 4pm.
World Boxing Federation president, Howard Goldberg, will be in attendance as pugilists from the host country Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, who descended on the eastern border city yesterday, will take to the night in potentially explosive 17 bouts before an anticipated bumper crowd.
The event is being hosted by the Charles Manyuchi Academy in conjunction with Mutare City Council.
An overwhelming response in the sale of advance tickets was witnessed since yesterday at Mutare City Council Town House as well as at the road shows parading the event in different suburbs of Mutare.
Goldberg, who is on his 12th visit to Zimbabwe, emphasised the importance of sport in general and boxing in particular in uniting people for different races and backgrounds.
“I am happy with the initiative that Mutare City Council and the Charles Manyuchi Academy have come up with. It is a game changer in itself in the promotion of the sport of boxing.
“Two people get into the ring, fight against each other, at time inflict injuries onto the other but still sit down for dinner together. This is how uniting the game of boxing is just like all the other sporting genres,” he said.
Lonely Tavuya, Mutare City Council legal manager, who spoke on behalf of Town Clerk Blessing Chafesuka, said: “As a local authority we have adopted a serious approach towards sport participation and promotion.
“To that end, we have identified boxing as a vehicle to promote talent among our youth as well as fight against drug and substance abuse. There is much more to our sport promotion drive that includes rehabilitation and construction of sports facilities around the city.”
Charles Manyuchi Academy director Trish Kabongo said they have a deliberate women inclusivity approach to business.
“We have made a deliberate stance to promote participation of women in boxing. Zimbabwe as a country has been very active on the issue of women inclusivity, not only in sport but many other spaces. Us as Charles Manyuchi Academy have taken it upon ourselves to ensure that, As you can see, I am female and I am here as the director of Charles Manyuchi Academy,” she said. The World Boxing Federation president Goldberg had a word of advice for budding pugilists.
“To the boxers, I can only urge you to keep training, keep fit, desist from substance and drug abuse. Shun smoking and alcohol if you really want to be serious about boxing and earn big money out of this sport,” he said.
Fielding questions from the media, Goldberg said plans are afoot to have local officials get international training and exposure to meet global standards
“Training of officials is very important to the Federation. After having done training courses in 15 countries I am more than happy to take local officials overseas to undergo training.
“It is one thing officiating a boxing match that ends without anything spectacular happening but it is another when something untoward happens, like cuts or headbutt and so on, that then demands more experience and expertise.
“Therefore, this is work in progress. We would love to have officials from this part of the world to mix and mingle with their experienced counterparts, learn from them and share notes,” he said.
On the value and eminence of the completion to the participants, given the 17 different categories of boxing titles, Goldberg said this is a crucial platform to secure more lucrative fights for the participating boxers.
“There are lots of promoters around the world and they are looking for good fighters. For example, Charles Manyuchi was at his best, promoters in USA and other parts of the world would contact local promoters in search of good fighters, they search for good boxers for given categories, and that is how they get fights and make money out of the sport. Therefore, the importance is so huge to the participants,” he said.
