The Ugandan boxer stopped Briton Kevin Reavell in the 9th round of their super-welterweight fight
Uganda’s Muzamiru “King Kong” Kakande won the Commonwealth Super-Welterweight Silver title with a 9th round stoppage victory over Briton, Kevin Reavell, at Basildon, Essex in England on Sunday, September 7.
Kakande floored Reavell forcing the referee to step in the 9th of a scheduled 10-round fight.
“I’m happy for winning the Commonwealth silver title, my journey to the top continues,” the 31-year-old Kakande (11-1-1, 7 KOs) told boxersworld.co.ke in an interview from Essex.
“I started the ninth round working behind my jab, and at 0:54 I landed a combination of left and right punches which put him on the canvas for a TKO win.”
Based in Munich, Germany, where he is fighting under Takeover Management headed by Leon Sadbury, Kakande carried the fight to Reavell from the first bell.
“I opened up aggressively, using my jab operating as a southpaw for the first five rounds. I broke his nose with a sharp left hand at the beginning of round one.
“He landed some clean shots in the fifth and sixth rounds which he won. I switched back to orthodox in the seventh round pressing hard with combinations. The referee gave him an eight count and was saved by the bell. Despite being bigger than me he didn’t hurt me with any punch.
“I used a lot of body punches, this worked well to my advantage.”
Muzamiru said he wants to emulate one of Uganda’s top pro boxers John “The Beast” Mugabi now based in Brisbane, Australia.
Unlike in amateur boxing in which he was a pressure fighter, Muzamiru said he has changed his approach in the ring.
“I have changed a lot since I relocated to Germany, before I was just going forward putting a lot of pressure on my opponents using a lot of power but now in pro boxing I’m smarter. I can box and fight, using more of my brain and counting every punch I throw.”
Muzamiru is looking forward to landing on his biggest ever payday in pro boxing. For now he’s fighting for a modest purse to enable him pay his bills.
“Pro boxing doesn’t pay much at the beginning, that’s why I do a part time job in Germany to survive but I must say I have improved my life than when I was in Uganda, I would be a farner had I not moved out of my country.”
He singles put Kazakhstan’s Victor Temirov as the toughest boxer he has met so far and he’s the only boxer to have defeated Muzamiru.
“Temirov is the most difficult opponent I’ve met and the only one to defeat me because I boxed in the heavier middleweight.
“His punches were heavy, I hit him with all my strong punches but he didn’t feel them. He kept on coming to me, the fight could have gone either way.”
Muzamiru, who hails from Namawojja, Luwero District, first got involved with boxing in 2010 at Bisima Boxing Club but had to quit owing to instability in the Ugandan federation at the time occasioned bad blood between two warring factions.
He made his international debut in 2016, and the following won a gold medal at the 2017 Africa Elite Championships in Congo Brazzaville.
Prior to the gold in Congo, Uganda had endured 13 painful years without winning a gold medal at the big stage. The last time for the Ugandans then to win gold medals at the international level was through Sadat Tebazalwa and Jolly Katongole both of whom won gold in the 2004 Africa Olympic qualifiers in Casablanca and Gaborone.
Since Kakande’s gold in Congo, Uganda once a powerhouse in Africa and world boxing from 1950s to 1990s, has not won gold at a major African tournament for eight years.
