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Tadious Manyepo-Sports Reporter
WORLD Boxing Council interim super-bantamweight champion Kuda “Take Money” Chiwandire is in no mood to relax ahead of her title defence against Zulina Munoz of Mexico.
The 27-year-old Zimbabwean female boxer is scheduled to box her highly-rated challenger on October 1 at the Harare International Conference Centre.
This will be the first time for the country to host a WBC-sanctioned fight and excitement is building up with only two weeks before the historic showdown.
With the winner of the much-anticipated battle becoming a mandatory challenger for the WBC gold title, Chiwandire knows there is no margin to err even in the build-up.
The pugilist has been carrying a 2-kilo extra mass at the beginning of this week but she has worked hard to punch it out.
She is now effectively within the required super-bantamweight mass even when her handlers know WBC would have allowed them to continue preparing even with a 3-kilo extra weight.
Unlike other boxers across the world who believe it’s an advantage to use the excess weight for training, Chiwandire’s manager/coach, Clyde Musonda, is against that.
“We believe in the conventional. Once we realised we were overweight, we drew up a special schedule to make sure that we shed the excess mass,” said Musonda.
“The boxer should train within her weight. That aids in her becoming strong rather than to train with extra weight. It can help during training but then it’s a disadvantage when it comes to the fight proper.
“Everyone should carry their bodies, train their bodies, punch using their proper weight just like they will do when fighting. That is exactly what we did when we were preparing for our last fight against Catherine Phiri of Zambia in February.
“That is the reason we had to craft our program specifically to cut the weight. We are happy we managed to do just that and we are now focusing on other aspects of our boxing as we prepare for the crunch battle against Zulina Munoz.”
The fight was supposed to take place on August 27 but was pushed further due to some logistical issues the organisers wanted to address first.
At the time of the postponement, Chiwandire had been camped in Johannesburg, South Africa, courtesy of her anchor sponsors, KGK, as well as South Africa-based Zororo Phumulani, which is powered by Doves Zimbabwe.
While in the neighbouring country, Chiwandire had three sparring sessions against some of the top pugilists from that country while she also interacted with legendary Zimbabwean footballers Innocent Chikoya and Edelbert Dinha.
Although there were indications Chiwandire would camp in South Africa once again, Musonda said it will now be tricky to do that given it’s only two weeks before the fight.
By late yesterday, Chiwandire had not yet been in camp as her handlers were still running around to secure everything in place.
But Chiwandire said although she won’t be physically in a secluded camp, she is always aware of the need to provide one for herself even at home.
“I am always in camp. I know what I should and shouldn’t do. I have been preparing for this fight for a long time now. I know the expectations out there and I should prepare accordingly,” said Chiwandire.
“I am very much excited ahead of the fight. I am going to put in more work in the next two weeks and I will get ready for the ring.”
Chiwandire will now be engaged in light sparring and ring-work to condition her for the high-profile fight.
She beat Catherine Phiri of Zambia at the Lusaka Government Complex on February 26 to take the belt she will be defending on October 1 at home.
She has never been in the ring since then but she is adamant the sparring duels she has had in South Africa last month helped her shrug off the rust.
Online Reporter