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Gilbert Munetsi and Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporters
WORLD Boxing Council (WBC) interim super-bantamweight champion Kudakwashe “Take Money” Chiwandire is scheduled to depart for Cape Town, South Africa, on July 18 for a month-long training stint in preparation for her mandatory title defence contest against Mexican Zulina Munoz which takes place at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) in Harare on August 20.
She will travel with her coach and manager, Clyde Musonda of Delta Force Boxing Academy, and once there, has some sparring sessions lined up against some of the best female pugilists from the African continent.
According to a training itinerary availed to The Herald on Friday, one such is Ellina “Tigress” Simwaka (W10; L5; D2), a former World Boxing Federation (WBF) champion of Malawian origin who is now based in South Africa.
Musonda said his camp had drawn up a US$10 000 budget for the preparations running to the day of the match and a local company with interests in logistics, KGK, has since committed to adopt this and other needs ahead of the “Fire In The Hole” showdown.
Part of the amount will be directed towards kit, camping and nutritional needs.
“The KGK Logistics sponsorship package will go a long way in ensuring that the champion is adequately prepared for the tournament. The company has come at a time when we are gunning for sponsors to make this event a success. We call upon the nation of Zimbabwe to come on board and support us as we embark on a journey that will put us on the world sports map,” Musonda told the media at a press conference held at a local hotel in Harare on Friday.
This will be the first time that a WBC sanctioned match will be held in Zimbabwe.
There will be so much at stake including a US$20 000 pay cheque for the winner who will also secure the right to challenge for the Gold title.
And Chiwandire, who has already spent the last month in camp, on Friday received a huge morale boost when the logistics company, KGK Logistics, announced they were partnering the star boxer in the run-up to the crunch showdown.
KGK Logistics presented an assortment of equipment including mats, skipping ropes, a punching bag and ring boots, among other items worth thousands of United States dollars which Chiwandire will use during the course of her preparations and on the match-day.
The company also announced that the fighter will go for a three-week training camp in South Africa where a number of renowned boxers from that country have been lined up for sparring.
The organisation’s representative Memory Gideon said her company is committed to providing Chiwandire with all the support she needs to be in good stead to win the August 20 fight.
“As a corporate company, we have decided to support our Zimbabwean boxer Kuda Chiwandire, we know she is a single mother and a girl child who we should try to empower,” she said.
“We want to support her dream of conquering the world. We know she has a bright future and we have taken it upon ourselves to try and empower her in every way we can.
“We have chipped in with a whole lot of training kit and some of the apparels she will be using on the fight night.
“We have also decided to sponsor her camping in South Africa. The camp will start on July 18 and it is our hope she will be able to really focus away from the usual settings she is used to. She will also get to spar with some of the big name boxers from South Africa.
“We hope that will help her in a very big way. We just call upon corporates and individuals to also try by all means to give Chiwandire a supporting hand as she will be representing the country when she climbs into the ring, come August 20.”
Gideon said they will also host a dinner on July 15 for the boxer before she flies to South Africa together with her promoter and coach Musonda.
Chiwandire promised to deliver a perfect show and retain her title.
“I am humbled to be getting such a kind of corporate sponsorship. I mean, it means a lot to me,” said Chiwandire.
“This sponsorship will go a long way in my preparations for next month’s fight. Remember I will be fighting before my own people and the pressure will be on but I promise to put everything that I have been given to good use.
“You know getting people like KGK Logistics on your side, those people who invest in you is a very humbling thing. I have to pay back by making them proud. I have to put in the work, put on the effort, do everything and make sure I am in the right spirits, come August 20.
“I have been preparing for this fight for some weeks now and I have to keep my eyes on the ball as I aim to retain my title.”
Commenting on the sponsorship on the back of the history-making tournament, Zimbabwe National Boxing and Wrestling Control Board (ZNBWCB) chief executive officer, Lawrence Zimbudzana, said it had come at the right time, given that the most critical phase of an athlete is training.
“What we see inside the boxing ring is basically a showcase of what the athlete has been doing behind the scenes. Champions are not made in the ring, but bouts are won at training,” he said.
Zimbudzana also said the coming in of KGK Logistics is an endorsement for Chiwandire.
“There is no doubt that Chiwandire has become a big name after winning this WBC interim title. She will be involved in this historic fight on August 20 and seeing corporates coming in to support the cause is something very much soothing,” said Zimbudzana.
“This fight will be more than just a boxing bout. We are very much thankful to KGK Logistics and we also call upon other companies to emulate them.”
Chiwandire won the belt after beating Zambia’s Catherine Phiri at the Lusaka Government Complex on February 26.
But the accompanying prize was just US$1 000.
She was, however, handed a US$15 000 by President Mnangagwa at State House for her achievement with the President also giving her his blessings ahead of the August 20 fight.
While the Government, through the Ministry of Sport, Youth, Arts and Culture, will provide part-funding for this first ever world boxing event to visit Zimbabwe, the boxing regulatory authority (ZNBWCB) is also mooting a fund-raising dinner which is aimed at complementing President Mnangagwa’s pledge to support Chiwandire’s cause.
Turning to the preparations for the World Boxing Council Officials Training and Grading Seminar and the African Boxing Union Convention scheduled for Victoria Falls at the end of this month, Zimbudzana said the number of registered participants had risen to 90 as at the end of day on Thursday.
“We are busy mobilising local delegates to take advantage of this workshop that has come to their doorstep. They have to take advantage of the cost factor because it will be expensive for them if they are to travel outside the country to acquire the same international qualification,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chiwandire’s former boss, Charles Manyuchi, will feature on the former’s bout card as an undercard. Manyuchi, who for a two-year term signed Chiwandire under his academy but had to let her go following the lapse of their contract, faces Sheriff “Boom Boom Machine” Kasongo of the DRC in a super-middleweight non-title contest.
Manyuchi – the reigning World Boxing Federation (WBF) world, World Alliance Boxing Association (WABA) supreme and Global Boxing Union (GBU) inter-continental champion – said he would be using the fight as a tune-up for the defence of his own titles unification in September.
He last fought in Masvingo in May last year when he faced Muhammad Sebyala of Uganda, and won on points.
His next opponent, Kasongo, is no walkover as he has won 12 of his last 15 fights and lost three. One thing the two boxers have in common is that they have at one time faced the same tough opponent in Ghanaian Patrick Allotey (W41; L4; D0). Back in 2014, Manyuchi managed to hand the Ghanaian his first defeat in 30 fights to win the WBC international title while Kasongo lost a WBO Africa junior middleweight contest by a unanimous points decision to the same boxer in 2018.
“For me Kasongo is a type of music under the rhumba genre and there is basically nothing to fear about Kasongo the personality. As has been traditionally the case whenever I fight at home, I will bag this one, and a month later embark on the defence of my three titles.
“It is an honour to be fighting on the card of my subordinate, she (Chiwandire) needs as much support and colour to her event, hence I did not hesitate to heed the call when I got the invitation,” Manyuchi said.
Online Reporter