▪️Mozambique two-time African champion Alcinda Dos Santos and compatriots barred in gender test row
▪️10 African boxers – nine women and one male boxer – in the quarter-finals after the Commonwealth Games draws
▪️Ghana’s Jibril Muntari received a bye to the last eight, meets Northern Ireland’s Garyn McAllister
▪️”It’s a tough draw for us,” says Kenya’s head coach Musa Benjamin
▪️Uganda’s rising star Angel Katushabe, Nigeria’s African Games champions Blessing Oraekwe and Patricia Mbata, Kenya’s Rosemarion Otieno and Tanzania’s Zawadi Kutaka among nine African female boxers in the quarters.
▪️24 African pugilists ready to trade leather with the rest of the world, bringing to Glasgow powerful “boxing made in Africa” in the opening session on July 24. War is war!
July 23, 2026
The Commonwealth Games ring has turned into a legal and physical battleground, leaving 10 African boxers just one win away from the podium while a gender-testing storm erupts outside the ropes in Glasgow, Scotland.
Two-time African champion and 2022 world silver medallist Alcinda Dos Santos of Mozambique is officially out of the tournament.
Dos Santos and three of her compatriots were disqualified after failing to meet World Boxing’s (WB) strict new gender test requirements. Yet the Mozambican Olympic Committee sent proof of payment for the test and sample collection to the organisers done in Portugal. The ruling has sparked loud fury across the African continent.
Several African boxing federations hit back at the sport’s new world body, calling WB “insensitive” and “too strict for nothing.” Officials openly contrasted the decision with the International Boxing Association (IBA), praising the Umar Kremlev-led world governing body as far more “humane” in its handling of sensitive athlete eligibility cases.
*The Quarter-Final Lineup*
Despite the administrative heartbreak, 13 African fighters advanced to the Round of 16, and an elite group of 10 have smashed their way directly into the quarter-finals after the draws.
The quarter-final contingent features a historic nine women and one male boxer. Ghana’s Jibril Muntari received a bye to the last eight and is scheduled for a high-stakes heavyweight collision against Northern Ireland’s Garyn McAllister.
▪️Uganda’s rising star Angel Katushabe secures her spot in the flyweight elite. Katushabe will meet the winner between South Africa’s Thandolwethu Truelove Mathiba or England’s Ruby White. Namibia flyweight Monique Mischa clashes with either Scotland’s Brooke Neely or Sri Lanka’s Nadeeka Ranasinghe.
▪️African showdown: Tanzania’s Zawadi Kutaka will trade leather with Lesotho’s Rapelang Malecela in what is expected to be a highly charged all-African featherweight showdown
▪️Kenya’s powerhouse Rosemarion Otieno and Sierra Leone’s resilient Josefien Betist both advanced to the lightweight quarter-finals.
Rosemarion battles Canada’s Al-Ahmadieh Marie-Bathoul with Betis meeting either England’s Lucy Kings-Wheatley or Petronelia Nokenoke of Papua New Guinea.
▪️Uganda’s experienced Emily Nakalema secures her path forward as all eight welterweights start their path from the quarters. She battles Australia’s Elizabeth Bryson Eve.
▪️ Nigeria’s reigning African Games light-middleweight and middleweight champions Blessing Oraekwe and Patricia Mbata are raring to go. Blessing meets Australia’s Lekeisha Pergoliti while Patricia, the gold-medal favorite, squares it out with England’s Mary Kate Smith with the winner taking on Australia’s Emma-Sue Greentree.
India’s Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Lovina Borgonhain, one of the favourites for middleweight gold, received a bye to the semis and will face Tarona Taafaki from Tuvalu, a Polynesian microstate in the southern Pacific Ocean.
With 13 fighting in the Round of 16 and 10 already on the precipice of a Commonwealth medal, Africa’s boxing squad is turning institutional anger into pure ring motivation.
“This is the first time I’m representing my country in the Commonwealth Games, my main focus now is getting the job done. Nothing really matters to me than getting a medal,” Nigeria’s talented Blessing Oraekwe told boxersworld.co.ke in a phone chat.
The southpaw Nigerian burst into the limelight at the 2023 African Games in Accra, scoring an upset points win over fancied Mozambican Alcinda Dos Santos in the finals. Alcinda was yearning to take on Blessing to avenge the bitter Accra defeat.
Namibia’s African featherweight champion Tryagain Ndevelo is in an upbeat mood ahead of his round of 32 lightweight bout against Anthony Joseph of Trinidad and Tobago.
This is the third time Ndevelo is taking part in the Commonwealth Games having been at the 2018 and 2022 editions with no medal won.
“I feel calm and focused on the first match. One fight per time and every fight is like a final fight to me. I grow confident every day towards this game. Every man for himself and God for us all,” Ndevelo, the Namibian captain, told boxersworld.co.ke
Commenting on the draw, Kenya’s head coach Musa Benjamin said: “It’s a very tough draw against England, Scotland, Canada. Recovery time for Amina Martha who’s arriving later today and climbs the ring in tomorrow’s morning session is a concern to me. Anyway, to be top, you must beat the best so it’s game on.”
The Commonwealth Games boxing event – featuring 201 boxers, 131 men and 70 women from 43 countries – gets underway on Friday, July 24 with 24 African boxers in action.
Kenya’s bantamweight Amina Martha Faki is the first African boxer in the ring against tough England’s Lauren Mackie. The highlight is at light-heavyweight in which Tanzania’s bronze medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Yusuf Changalawe has a date against Nigeria’s David Akintola in the round of 32 with the winner battling Kenya’s twice African bronze medallist and IBA World Championships quarter-finalist Robert Okaka aka Man Ngori in the round of 16.
Zambians, world quarter-finalist bantamweight, Mwengo Mwale and world bronze medallist, welterweight Emmanuel Katema will also be in action with Mwale meeting Tanzania’s standout performer at the 2025 World Championships Faki Issa Faki who is also a bronze medalist in the Nairobi Zone 3 Championships while world semi-finalist Katema battles Chamil Pathmasiri of Sri Lanka.
Full Africa’s opening schedule coming soon.
boxersworld.co.ke
