KENYA’S ONGARE MAKES HISTORY
She becomes the second female boxer to win in Women’s World Championships in India.
🇷🇸 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Nis, Serbia, March 8-16, 2025.
Flashback 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, India.
It’s cheers and champagne for Kenya’s ardent boxing fans.
For the first time in 13 years, Kenya has won a bout in Women’s World Boxing Championships, thanks to Christine Ongare’s deserved second round stoppage win over Tanzania’s southpaw Rahma Maganga.
Ongare has now made history as the second Kenyan female boxer to win a fight in Women’s World Championships after Mary Muthoni, the first Kenyan winner in the 2010 Women Worlds in Barbados.
Ongare controlled the fight from the first round, feeding Rahma with constant dish of well executed right punches, forcing the referee to give Rahma a standing eight count in this round won by Ongare.
The Kenyan increased her work rate in round two, scoring punches with clinical efficiency. A constant dose of accurate rights to the face forced the referee to wave it off to save the young Rahma from further unnecessary punishment from her Kenyan neighbour. She was somewhat surprised why the referee stopped the fight.
Ongare’s bubble burst in the round of 16 when Japanese referee Riichi Igarashi surprisingly stopped her bout against Turkey’s Erivan Barut in the first round.
The stoppage was unjustified and has shocked boxing fans in Africa. The Kenyan had not been hurt or shaken by any of Barut’s punches.
Igarashi’s controversial stoppage left Ongare in tears, cursing the referee in what she described as the most painful moment in her boxing career.
Boxing analysts have called upon the International Boxing Association to advice their referees to avoid such hasty stoppages much as the health of the boxer is of paramount importance.
