The Sunday Mail
Sports Reporter
The continued absence of a boxing board that regulates the sport has resulted in a yawning void that stakeholders fear has dangerously left the game on auto-pilot.
Boxing has had no executive since December 2019 when the Richard Hondo-led Zimbabwe National Wrestling and Boxing Control Board’s tenure expired.
The boxing board sanctions fights and regulates and monitors policies, among some of its critical functions.
The secretariat, which is led by Lawrence Zimbudzana, has been running affairs for the past two years.
“Boxing is on auto-pilot,” says veteran promoter Stalin Mau Mau.
“It’s unfortunate that the Ministry of Sport (Arts and Recreation) has not been able to put a board in place for quite some time now. The secretariat cannot tamper with policy issues; they are not mandated to do that.
“Those are the functions of the board. Even the issues to do with sanctioning of fights, they should be done by the board . . .
“We should be talking about an inquiry in the wake of the death of one of our boxers, Taurai Zimunya, but without a substantive board, some of these issues cannot be resolved.”
23-year-old Zimunya died a few hours after suffering a third-round knockout to Tinashe Majoni at the “Rise of Champions” tournament in Borrowdale a fortnight ago.
Board secretary Zimbudzana has, however, hinted an inquiry will “start soon”.
He also revealed that a substantive board was on the cards.
“It’s not our prerogative as the secretariat to appoint the board.
“The appointing authority is the minister.
“But I can tell you that the process was initiated . . . We don’t have control over the office that is doing the vetting, but we are just hoping that before the fall of this year we are going to have a board. The process is at an advanced stage,” said Zimbudzana.
There are a number of tournaments lined up during the festive season.
Mau Mau’s “Peanuts for Diamonds” series resumes with a tournament at Magamba Hall in Warren Park next Saturday.
Ali “Otto” Phiri recently hosted the “Rise of Champions” in Borrowdale.
“The journey continues; the Peanuts for Diamonds series is back,” said Mau Mau.
“The aim is to improve the numerical value of the boxers’ records as much as possible and as quickly as possible.
“We are focusing on the record only, because at the end of the day, you start by asking how many fights does the boxer have.
“Then of those fights, how many did he win. Of those wins, how many did he win by way of knockout. Of those fights, how many did he draw, how many did he lose . . .
“We want the boxers to be more visible to international promoters and matchmakers . . . Those are the people who make boxing happen,” said Mau Mau.
Super bantamweight fighter Jeremiah “Jingo” Mhere, Anele Bafana (cruiserweight), Tinofadzwa Chikerema (lightweight), Collen Zidumbu (lightweight) and Ndodana Moyo (super lightweight) are some of the boxers expected to feature.
“We are almost done with the matchmaking.
“We tried to involve the boxing fraternity, the managers, promoters and the boxers themselves.
“The issue of mismatching will definitely be dealt with decisively.”
The veteran promoter is confident his stable will meet all the requirements to host the tournament.
“We have had a bit of a break despite the fact that we had promised we were going to go all out and try to cover the period lost during the lockdown.
“We are just trying to revitalise the whole thing and regain the momentum we had lost during the lockdown,” he said.
