The Sunday Mail
Gilbert Munetsi
IN what could turn out to be Charles Manyuchi’s greatest challenge at home so far, the World Boxing Federation (WBF) global champion has been compelled to accept a challenge from a boxer he once fought before he became an African and, subsequently, international champion.
Manyuchi is also the Global Boxing Union (GBU) and Universal Boxing Council (UBC) inter-continental champion, having previously held the African Boxing Union (ABU), WBC international and WBC silver titles.
What is interesting is that the recent acceptance to fight Mordicai Donga has been made possible by social media arguments which began some weeks ago and as prospects of the fight happening gathers momentum, there have already been confirmations by boxing followers from as far afield as the United Kingdom and South Africa that they will fly in for the “fight of the century”.
And what probably sparked the debate was Manyuchi’s last three fights at home which he easily won by knockout, which some quarters of the boxing fraternity believe were not up to scratch as the opponents did not live up to the billing.
Manyuchi has so far fought a Colombian Jose Feria and two Argentines, including Diego Acosta, whom he knocked out in Round 5 at the HICC on September 28.
Donga (40), a retired soldier-turned lawyer, has fought Manyuchi twice, winning once and losing the other bout.
Ironically, it was Manyuchi who beat him into retirement and before losing the national welterweight title to the former.
Donga was quoted in the media as saying, “the person who beats me is going to be a world champion”.
True to his prediction, Manyuchi became an ABU and World Boxing Council champion.
Donga, who had previously given Manyuchi his first defeat in professional boxing, went on to lose the second bout and this forced him to spike his gloves.
Currently, he is a board member of the Zimbabwe National Boxing Control Board and a practising lawyer.
Considering the 10-year difference between them, he argues that “age is just a number, and that experience is the best teacher’’.
When the debate was sparked in passing some weeks ago, little did members of the Boxing Business Contacts Whatsapp group (which has members from various countries in the region) know it would degenerate into a heated debate lasting weeks and would, eventually, drive the two characters at the centre to join in and agree to fight.
“Let’s get it on,” Manyuchi finally posted two days ago, much to the joy of members of the group.
Videos of both boxers in training have been posted to show how much work each one of them is putting into the fight and a local promoter has jumped onto the opportunity to put together what could prove to be Zimbabwe’s biggest fight pitting a current champion and a come-back pugilist.
Initially, there was talk of “real” purse money, but this has since been brushed aside with both boxers agreeing they will fight for free just to prove who, between them, is the greatest and to quench their fans’ appetite.
