▪️North Africa youth continue outshining Sub-Saharan teams in Futures U19 Cup tournament in Thailand
▪️ So far a total of 39 African boxers have been bundled out from the Bangkok tournament
March 12, 2026
The writing is already on the wall: North African teams have outshone Sub-Saharan Africa rivals in the ongoing Futures Cup U19 Boxing Tournament in Bangkok, Thailand.
As the Bangkok showdown entered the fourth day on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, Moroccan boxers led African charge with three of them among the four African winners. Benin’s bantamweight Prince Agbetome was the other African winner, upsetting Ukraine’s Oleksii Kolbaia 3-2.
In all, eight African boxers lost on Day Four to bring the total number to 39 the total number of African boxers eliminated so far in the ongoing Youth Olympic Qualifiers in Thailand.
The North African boxers have demonstrated greater success in recent international junior and youth tournaments due to better structured, state-supported and year-round training as compared to Sub-Saharan countries whose respective governments are not serious on boxing development.
For instance at the Junior Worlds in 2023 in Yerevan, Tunisia’s Molka Khelifi (picture in blue) won a bronze medal and was a quarter-finalist in the World Youth Champhonships. The Tunisians were also tops in the Africa Youth Champhonships in Guinea in 2025.
Sub-Saharan teams will have to change tact but they face a big obstacle from their respective governments whose support is minimal and are generally not bothered much on the boxing progress of their teams.
Day 4 results of African boxers in Bangkok Futures U19 Cup on March 11, 2026
Round 32 men 55kg
Libya’s Emran Bawi lost to Canada’s Lisandro Rebelo
Morocco’s Ziyad El Khaddari beat Yaniss Damiens of France 3-2
Benin’s Prince Agbetome beat Ukraine’s Oleksii Kolbaia 3-2
Algeria’s Smail Sahraoui lost to Dominican’s Michael Reyes
Kenya’s Brian Arianda lost to Turkey’s Muhammet Ali RSC R1
Round 32 men 70kg
Morocco’s Marouane Jaafri stopped Ziadrach James of Philippines
Egypt’s Ahmed Mobarak lost to Englands Michael Maughan 5-0
Algeria’s Mhamed Danil lost 5-0 to Australia’s Jaspaa Stowers
Round 32 men 65kg
Morocco’s Houssam Bouchetta stopped Algeria’s Bilal Lezoul
Round 16 men 60kg
Morocco’s Youssef lost 5-0 to David Harutyunyan of France
Julian Agathe of Mauritius lost 5-0 Slovakia’s Kristian Harasnik
Meanwhile, the Bangkok tournament enters Day 5 today, March 12, 2026, with 17 African boxers in action.
Winless Senegal – hosts of the Youth Olympics later in the year – have two boxers in action hoping to redeem themselves after nine losses so far.
