FIVE AFRICAN BOXERS IN TODAY’S OPENING ACTION, IBA NIGERIA IN THE MIX
The 14th edition of Women’s World Boxing Championships gets underway today (March 9) in Nis, Serbia, with five African boxers trading leather in various weight categories.
The five are South Africa’s Brics Games bronze medallist Ntandoyenkosi Ncube, Kenya’s African Military Games silver medallist Veronica Mbithe, Ethiopian duo of Milian Cherba and Werkneshi Wada and South Africa’s Esona Peter.
Ncube, who also won bronze in the inaugural Nelson Mandela African Boxing Cup, battles Russia’s national champion Rinata Bezel at light-flyweight while Corporal Mbithe, a product of Dallas Boxing Club, meets 2022 and 2023 silver and bronze medallist including twice gold medallist in Asian Championships Alua Balkibekova of Kazakhstan.
Lightweight Cherba has a date with Vietnam’s Ngo Thi Mai, light-flyweight, Wada fights Turkey’s Aysen Taskin with Esona taking on Tajikistan’s bronze medallist in the 2022 World Championships Shoira Zulkaynarova who has faced a lot of opposition since she took up boxing in this Muslim nation.
Tanzania’s heavyweight Rachel Msengi is listed fighting Zamora Nena of French Polynesia but the latter will get a walkover as the Tanzanian has yet to leave the country owing to a delay in visa issuance.
Among the African countries represented in this year’s Women’s World Championships are South Africa, Morocco, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Eswatini, Tunisia and IBA Nigeria.
Despite the fact that Nigeria has joined World Boxing, London-based African Games middleweight champion Patricia Mbata is taking part in the IBA-organised World Championships. It will be interesting to see how the Nigerian Boxing Federation will react.
Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Gambia, Madagascar and Malawi are the six African countries which have so far quit IBA and joined World Boxing. Africa still remains IBA stronghold.
The 2023 Women’s World Championships in India attracted 13 African countries.
