The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda
DAMIEN MARTIN, the French welterweight boxing champion who will wrestle Charles Manyuchi for his World Boxing Council silver title on September 30 looks like an easy opponent for the Zimbabwean star. But looks can be deceiving. Manyuchi’s handlers, Oriental Quarries, announced the voluntary defence bout during the week, setting the tone for a historic boxing event that will be held at the Harare International Conference Centre.
lt looks like the 26-year-old Manyuchi will still be the WBC silver champion on October 1 if Martin’s record is anything to go by. The 29-year-old Frenchman, who is the current holder of the WBC Francophone title and is ranked 134th in the world, has never fought outside his homeland since 2010. His record stands at 25-8-10 and his recent fights have been against opponents ranked well outside the top 100.
The most recent one was against Mouhamed Sder of Belgium on April 16 which he won on points to clinch the WBC Francophone title. Sder, who is the best welterweight boxer in Belgium – a weak boxing nation – is ranked number 289 on the world rankings and has an uninspiring record of 10-4-2.
Unheralded Italian Tobai Giusseppe Loriga (39), who is ranked 333 and the 32-year-old Bogdan Mitic of Serbia, who is way below at number 640, are some of the opponents Martin has beaten in the last year.
Manyuchi, who is ranked the 19th best welterweight boxer in the world and fourth on the latest WBC ratings, will be the toughest opponent Martin has ever faced. Martin, who hails from the French town of Saint-Mallo, has won his previous eight fights but none by the way of a TKO.
Videos of his fights show that the Frenchman is not a hard hitter and is likely to suffer at the hands of Manyuchi who is coming from a much tougher bout against Russian champion Dmitry Mikhaylenko.
Manyuchi defeated the highly fancied Mikhaylenko in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on May 7 to claim the vacant WBC silver title. The Zimbabwean boxing star seemed relaxed after hearing of his opponent and promised to give the Frenchman “a thorough beating.”
“I normally do not talk too much, I just beat them inside the ring. I will win on September 30,” said Manyuchi, who is expected in camp by July 10.
“It will be nice to be cheered by fans from my homeland.”
