AFRICA ROBBED AS DANCING KENYANS BRIGHTEN UP DAY TWO
Biased officiating reared its ugly head on Day Two of Women’s World Boxing Championships in Serbia on March 10, 2025.
Jovial dancing Kenyan girls however brightened up the day as the total number of African boxers who have lost swelled to seven.
Tunisia’s bantamweight Islem Ferchichi dominated Russia’s Karina Tazabekova that at the end of the three rounds even those with elementary knowledge of boxing would have given the Tunisian boxer a deserved victory.
Surprisingly, it was the Russian boxer declared the winner much to the chagrin of Ferchichi who had the better of the exchanges throughout the three rounds.
The five judges interestingly all scored it 30-27 in favour of the Russian boxer. Probably they were watching baseball.
My high school buddy Ephraim Amboye, who is a staunch boxing fan, described it as a stinking decision which has once again put boxing into disrepute.
“That was daylight robbery, totally unacceptable,” said Amboye now a businessman in Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi.
The loss of Ethiopia’s bantamweight Roman Abate to Moldova’s Iulia Coroli was also suspicious and had decided by BR with Coroli taking it 4-3.
Dancing Kenyan girls livened up the day for Africa when they celebrated in style the walkover victories of flyweight Lencer Akinyi and featherweight Pauline Chege following the unavailability of their opponents.
Lencer was to fight South Africa’s Thandolwethu Mathiba and Pauline was pitted against Montenegro’s Bojana Gojkovic.
The two Kenyans have now qualified to the round of 16, and will be in action on Wednesday, March 12. Lencer meets number five seed Serbia’s Dragana Jovanovic while Pauline battles Tajikistan’s number four seed Mijgona Samadova.
In addition to Ferchichi and Abate, other losing African boxers on Day Two were Zimbabwean duo of lightweight Hilday Kaye beaten by Serbia’s Christina Kuluhova and featherweight Lovelight Fusire who lost 5-0 to Brazil’s Yasmin Alvez.
After Day Two action, a total of seven African boxers have so far been eliminated and two winning on walkovers to move to the round of 16.
Day One on March 9 saw three African boxers kissing goodbye to the Women’s World Boxing Championships. They are Kenya’s light-flyweight Veronica Mbithe beaten 5-0 by Kazakhstan’s two-time world championships medallist Alua Belkibekova and two Ethiopians, light-flyweight Werkneshi Wada and lightweight Million Cherba who lost via a walkover while Wada was stopped in the second round by Turkey’s Aysen Taskin.
Meanwhile, South Africa and Tanzania joined Ghana and DR Congo as nations that failed to travel to Serbia after failing to be issued with visas, a painful body blow to the boxers whose months of preparations have gone to waste.
Photos courtesy of IBA
