The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
IN a move meant to breathe life into the sport of boxing at a professional level in Zimbabwe, Kwese Sports are sponsoring a Boxing Extravaganza at the Harare International Conference Centre on 13 July.
The boxing fiesta will feature boxers from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Zimbabwe who include Emmany Kalombo and Jimmy Bwanji all from the DRC, the UK group of Mickey Ellison, Samuel Antwi, Marc Leach and Stacey Copeland while from South Africa there will be a female boxer, Mapula Ngubane.
Zimbabwe will be represented by the duo of Wesley McDade and Tapiwa Tembo.
Kalombo will battle it against Thomson in the Inter Continental title, while Mbwanji will square it off with Brown in the light welterweight section.
Kwese’s general manager for Zimbabwe, Dorothy Zimuto, was upbeat about the event and was hopeful that the event will live up to its billing.
“With the new mood currently obtaining in the country, this could not have been better timed, it provides a platform to demonstrate that Zimbabwe is truly ‘open for business’ and to showcase Brand Zimbabwe to the world. As the hosts of the African event we are proud to broadcast the boxing night across Africa and the World at large”, said Zimuto.
Promoters of the event Kalakoda are equally delighted about the occasion and are hopeful that it will be a memorable night for boxing lovers as they have also lined up entertainment which will be fronted by local musician Ammara Brown who is riding high with her latest offering.
“We piloted this concept with great success last year in Manchester, by taking a team of five African boxers to the UK and the majority of them had never been outside the African boarders to represent the African continent in the best of five team format.
“The response was overwhelming thereby prompting us to take stage another event in Australia sometime this year(Europe versus Africa) which drew interest from across the continent and proved that, given the platform and opportunity African athletes can perform at the highest level and be world beaters” Saul Loggenberg said.
With Zimbabwe’s current thrust to reengage with the rest of the world especially the UK where the country is making efforts to rejoin the Commonwealth grouping, this event resonates well with those efforts by the Government’s endevours.
@Mdawini_29
