Gold is what Kenya’s welterweight Joseph Shigali is promising his Jericho fans and Kenyans as a whole
Joseph “Shigz” Shigali is one of the Kenyan boxers expected to excel in the Africa Zone 3 Championships starting on Thursday, October 16, at Kasarani Indoor Arena in Nairobi.
“I promise my Jericho fans raundi hii nawaletea ndechu,” Shigali told boxersworld.co.ke in an interview.
What is ndechu? I ask Shigali to simplify further this word to our readers who don’t understand sheng.
“Ndechu is a gold medal in our sheng language in the estates,” says Shigali who has not forgotten his roots at Jericho Boxing Club where he learnt the ABC of boxing from 2004 under coach Roy Kwavi.
The 36-year-old Shigali, a member of Police Boxing Club aka Chafua Chafua, won a bronze medal in the 2021 Africa Zone 3 Championships in Kinshasa, DR Congo.
In his second participation in this zonal tournament held again in Kinshasa, Shigali blames the organisers for eliminating him without any justifiable reason.
“They removed me claiming my name is not in the programme after beating their boxer,” recalls Shigali on the unorthodox approach applied by the hosts using every trick in the book to emerge the overall winners.
“Surprisingly the boxer I defeated is the one who won a gold medal, it was not easy to win gold if you finish all rounds with a DRC boxer.”
All that is now water under the bridge as Shigali turns his focus on this year’s Zone 3 event taking place in Nairobi.
He reckons they expect stiff competition from rivals Uganda who will be represented by 16 boxers.
“Ugandans are good boxers but they should know it’s not going to be easy to beat us at home, we’re ready for them,” says Shigali who made his debut for the national team at the 2020 Olympic Games qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal.
He has since then represented Kenya in several international tournaments including world championships in 2021 and 2023. He won a silver medal at an international contest against host Tanzania in 2022.
Locally Shigali has been a hard nut to crack. Between 2018-2020 he was the national lightweight champion, and maintained his domination when he moved up to light-welterweight and welterweight reigning supreme in the Kenya National Boxing League.
Shigali singles out John Juma – who later turned pro – as the toughest opponent he has fought locally.
Among his most memorable victories include beating Prisons’ Musa Nassur in 2012, Nakuru’s John Kariuki in 2015, Busia’s Hassan Wanende in the 2019 Kenya Open finals and KDF’s Chrispine Murimi.
During his free time, Shigali enjoys listening to reggae music, poultry keeping, travelling and engaging himself as a gym instructor.
“My favourite food is kienyeji chicken and ugali because it makes me stronger during my workouts in the gym.”
Commenting on Kenya hosting the Africa Zone 3 Championships, Shigali says: “It’s a great pleasure we’re hosting Zone 3 this time. Many of my friends always tell me they long for the day they’ll watch me in action in an international tournament at home. Now it’s here and I know they’ll like it seeing me punching my foreign opponents. Above all personally I thank BFK for hosting it.”
