The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
FORMER pan-African boxing heavyweight champion Thamsanqa Dube is still battling to shed weight with two weeks to go before his scheduled fight against rising Ugandan star, Shafik Kiwanuka.
The continental bout is set for Kampala’s Lugogo Cricket Oval on 29 November. Dube, affectionately known as Thamzoya, will be returning to the ring for the first time in eight years and the long layoff has seen him gain weight and has so far lost 30kgs since he started training at the end of last month.
True Ndachi Boxing Promotions spokesman, Jarmaine Chapfiwa said Dube as now at 130kgs but will need to shed off 10 more kgs as 120kgs would be the ideal weight heading into the fight.
“As you know Dube has been inactive for a while so he gained a lot of weight but we are all happy that he has managed to lose 30kg in the short period, which is a sign of the intense training that he has been doing but we need him to lose another 10 kilogrammes before he squares off against Kiwanuka,” he said.
Thamzoya (36) left for South Africa on Friday for a week long training stint as he seeks to fine tune his skills and cast off the ring rust before heading for Kampala. Speaking before he left for Johannesburg, the former heavyweight champion said he was ready to make a “stinging” come back and show that he has not faded.
“This is a good opportunity for me to show that I still have the punches in me and can challenge anyone in the heavyweight section. In SA I will be sparring with several professional boxers and hope this will help me fine tune my preparations. Locally I have been sparring with Noel Mpofu and I’m grateful for his availability.
“It is unfortunate that I will be going to South Africa for just one week as I was hoping to spend more time there but we will have to make do with what we have. We had hoped to raise more funding from the corporate world but we have come unstuck there which is a stumbling block because preparations are key and my opponent has been getting all the support he needs,” he said.
Kiwanuka is trumped as Uganda’s next heavyweight champion and has shown a lot of promise.
Kiwanuka (23), who turned professional late last year, had his first professional fight early this year where he announced his arrival with a first round knock-out against Kenyan, David Khalama.
The Ugandan, nicknamed the “Killing Machine”, showed the victory, and the way it was achieved, was no fluke as he again knocked out his opponent in his second fight, DRC boxer, Tyson Mbikayi, in less than a minute.
Thamzoyah, who has 15 career fights, winning an incredible 12 matches, losing only three, can use the match to successfully re-launch his boxing career or the “Killing Machine” will put a lid to a boxer who held so much promise but never reached his full potential.
@rasmthembo
