The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda
Sports Reporter
THERE is a positive vibe within the boxing fraternity which is bracing for its first tournament in a year at a time more sponsors are flocking to bankroll the sport.
All is now set for the Delta Force boxing tourney set for Harare in a fortnight.
Promoter Clyde Musonda of Delta Force said preparations were at an advanced stage for a live broadcast tournament to be held in a wing of the School of Health Sciences at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals on March 20.
There will be two national titles on the line and two international bouts, according to a card made available to The Sunday Mail Sport.
Freeman Mabvongwe will fight Trynos Zihove for the vacant welterweight title while Zvikomborero Danzwa locks horns with Bulawayo-based Sehlisiwe Hliziyo for the super bantamweight belt.
Simbarashe “Hawk” Hokonya has a date with Aliya Phiri in an eight-round non-title lightweight fight while Revai Madondo takes on Malawi’s Harriet Mtende (flyweight) over six rounds.
Welterweight boxer, Adonia Abraham, from the Zimbabwe National Army, will have his debut pro entry with a fight against Bernard Siloji.
Much is expected from Hokonya, a highly-rated 22-year-old lightweight pugilist whose Chitungwiza-based stable, Box Africa, recently clinched a sponsorship deal with a local entertainment company.
Chitungwiza-based Boss Tate Entertainment (BTE) last week became the third company in two months to forge a sponsorship marriage with the sport of boxing amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last month, two other companies — Stanzee Borehole Drilling and Delaxx Logistics — joined hands with Delta Force Boxing Academy when they sent Madondo for a fight in Tanzania.
Boxing has been yearning for sponsorship which is the lifeblood of any sporting discipline.
Like a lone ranger, only veteran promoter Stalin Mau Mau’s Mr Bulk Water was bankrolling tournaments regularly as part of the promoter’s “Peanuts for Diamonds” boxing series.
While Charles Manyuchi has his own sponsors specifically for his academy, their presence is felt only when the former WBC silver champion takes to the ring.
Boss Tate managing director Tatenda Machemba, also known as Madzibaba Tatenda, revealed that his company had considered sponsoring boxing after having noted the amount of talent that abounds in the sprawling town of Chitungwiza.
“Apart from music, boxing is a sport that we have had a liking to and we have come in with a view to supporting the local talent that we have in this town.
“And so when a local stable knocked on our door seeking our support, we did not hesitate to assist and beginning this month, we have adopted a couple of professional boxers from Box Africa whom we will be helping in various ways,” he said.
Some of the boxers that have come out of Chitungwiza include Last Magare, Ndodana Moyo, Takudzwa Kuchocha and Sydney Baloyi.
Chitungwiza is also home to legendary former heavyweight champion Arigoma “Master Blaster” Chiponda.
The arrival of BTE entertainment could arouse fresh optimism in a sport that has been dormant since March last year, after being forced into a Covid-19-induced hiatus.
Over the months, a number of boxers have gone out on assignments to countries such as Namibia and Tanzania while the domestic regulator of the sport, the Zimbabwe National Boxing and Wrestling Control Board, was engaging the Sports Ministry with a view to having the latter consent to proposed guidelines.
The ZNBWC told The Sunday Mail in an interview that local tournaments would be sanctioned on a case by case basis provided the organisers put in place measures that mitigate the spread of Covid-19.
Delta Force Academy have already lodged their request with the boxing board.
“We are also planning to have the tournament broadcast live on some social platforms,” said Musonda.
