The Sunday Mail
FORMER Commonwealth champion Arifonso “Mosquito” Zvenyika, who recently acquired a promoter and trainer’s licence, says Zimbabwean boxing is in a coma.
Zvenyika, who begins his life as a promoter with an international assignment in Lusaka later this month, insists he knows what needs to be done to get the country back to boxing’s top table.
“We need to produce championship winning boxers,” he said.
In Anyway Katunga, who will fight Alfred Mawowo of Zambia in an undercard fight to Charles Manyuchi’s World Boxing Council title defence on November 22, Zvenyika claims to have found hidden talent.
Although the 21-year-old Katunga last fought competitively four years ago Zvenyika insists with proper guidance and sound sponsorship, his protégé can emulate or surpass his achievements.
“I am a boxing veteran and I know a future champion when I see one. I have been working with Anyway (Katunga) for over a month now and I can see some traits of me in him.
“He is the best flyweight boxer in the country at the moment but it is not being recognised because our boxing records are not in order at the moment.
“The Zambian bout should be a stepping stone for him. I still contend that boxing in Zimbabwe is not dead, it is only in a state of coma and the only doctor who can cure this ailment is sponsorship.
“When these boxers go on international assignments, they are representing the country and I feel something should be done in terms of assisting them get proper preparations,” said Zvenyika who held the Commonwealth flyweight boxing belt for a year in 1998.
The former champion expects a successful outing in Zambia to open doors for his Mosquito Boxing Promotions stable.
“This fight is important to me; it seems like my whole life depends on it because it is my passage into the real world of boxing promotion.
“I have intensified Katunga’s training programme and he now runs from Epworth to the training venue in town every morning.
“We really need to win this bout and possibly forge a strong relationship with Oriental Quarries boxing promoters who are organising the fight night in Zambia,” said Zvenyika.
Mosquito Boxing Promotions also boasts of the highly rated Super Bantamweight boxer Ronald Tamani as well as 15 amateur boxers drawn for Harare’s suburbs of Mbare and Sunningdale.
