▪️Out of 18 African boxers in action on Day One of World Futures Cup U19 tournament in Bangkok, 14 lost and four of them won their fights, three from Morocco and Benin’s female bantamweight Elisabeth Salanon
▪️Arema has now turned her guns on the government. “Unfortunately the government doesn’t give priority to boxing and other combat sports coupled with small financial support and preparations, we trained only for a week,” said Arame BA
March 9, 2026
The first day of competition in Bangkok, Thailand was a total nightmare for African boxers on Sunday, March 8, 2026. It was like a bad dream but it happened.
Eighteen of them were in action on Day One of the World Futures U19 Tournament at the famous Huamark Indoor Stadium where Kenyan boxers conquered the world in the 80s during the popular annual Kings Cup Championships.
Out of the 18 African boxers in the squared circle, 14 of them including four Senegalese boxers were bundled out by their more technically superior opponents from Europe and Asia who were better tactically exploiting every gap in their opponents defence and generally more adept in ring management.
Only four African boxers – three from Morocco and one from Benin – won their fights in this weeklong tournament which is a qualifier for the Youth Olympics scheduled for Dakar, Senegal, from October 31-November 13, 2026.
A crestfallen Senegalese new female coach, Arame Ba, watched in disbelief her boxers being brought down to earth by their well prepared, more exposed and confident opponents.
The Star-1 Arema Ba has made history as the first ever Senegalese female coach to accompany her country’s team to an international overseas competition.
She travelled to Bangkok with head coach Ibrahima Wade and his assistant Alioune Ndoye brimming with confidence her boxers would do well despite the inadequate preparations they had at home but on the first day of the competition, she was woken up to the reality when her four boxers were pounded by technically superior opponents from Europe and Asia.
Arema BA’s harrowing experience highlights the stark, often painful gap in technical, tactical and resource preparations between developing boxing nations and established, countries with elite global programs such as Central Asian giants, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
For the disheartened Arema Ba, this harsh, immediate wake-up call underscores that high expectations and the raw power of the African boxers cannot overcome superior technical training, constant exposure and thorough preparations boxers from Europe, Asia and the Americas go through ahead of major competitions.
This sad and demoralizing situation serves as a critical, albeit brutal learning experience that typically forces a total re-evaluation of training methods, exposure and serious international preparations for future competitions.
However, for the African governments, the aforementioned is akin to strumming the guitar to a goat. They never learn nor are they even bothered with the poor results so long as they have funded the trips and allowances dished out.
Some of the countries even travel with their government’s representatives who know nothing about the ABC of boxing and therefore turn out to be more of a liability than an asset to their teams. They don’t compile any report and on return home their respective governments don’t even bother to conduct a postmortem on why their boxers never excel in overseas competitions out of Africa.
One would have expected the Senegalese government to be more thorough in preparing their boxing team in view of the fact that they are hosting the Youth Olympic Games this year. Far from it as Arema Ba told boxersworld.co.ke in a phone interview from Bangkok.
“As a coach and knowing the reality in our national team, I think we have a serious lack of good preparations compared to other well developed countries,” said Arema without mincing her words.
She turned her gun to the government shooting from both barrels.
“Unfortunately the government doesn’t give priority to boxing and other combat sports, no proper infrastructure for the athletes, very small financial support which can’t allow us to take care of all aspects of an athlete’s preparations. For example we gathered the boxers for the competition preparations only a week before the trip due to budget restrictions,” said Arema, adding: “Chances are reduced for us if the government doesn’t invest in performance. Indeed I have faced the reality on what happens in big competitions. Our boxers didn’t make it past the second round. It’s hard time for coaches and other staff. I now have a different perspective of the situation on the ground.”
Arema Ba was at pains to explain the inexplicable decision by their boxer, a bronze medallist in the 2025 African Youth Games Pape Maguette Yade, to retire in the first round of his lightweight bout against Morocco’s Youssef Hlaila in the round of 64.
“We could have won this fight but our boxer just gave up in the first 30 seconds, we were all shocked why he did this,” said a disappointed Arema Ba.
“I was in Morocco in 2025. They’re very serious on their preps, they don’t play around about performance.
They’re clearly on a different level compared to teams in Africa south of Sahara.”
She went on: “On the other hand coaches are not fully aware of the evolution of the global rush for performance. The monitoring of every aspect of the athletes’ physical condition and mental state is non-existant. We have a lot to learn and integrate. But they are doing their best with the means they have to make it through a world in constant development and new science of sport.”
Arema Ba however exonerated the boxers for their lucklustre performance.
“For most of the boxers it’s their first international competition. I learned from coaches that most of them have few fights on the counter,” said Arema.
“Despite all of this we know they have the physical ability to win a fight, but they face mental issues from pressure and lack of self confidence. We are working on this to help them go through it. We’re here to gain some experience so I take all this positively hoping to correct our mistakes.”
On the flip side of it all, Arema advised the boxers to make the best out of a bad situation, citing Senegal’s world kickboxing champion Mohamed Tafsir Ba who clinched world -91kg title in Uzbekistan in 2024 despite lack of support from the government, no exposure, proper facilities and good coaching.
“Our boxers should develop serious mental strength in any bad situation and turn it to their advantage even without the coaches’ help and excel,” said Arema Ba, “We have a world champion in kickboxing, and he prepared under the same conditions as our boxers. The difference was his dedication on training with or without coaches and government support. He used his natural ability to succeed.”
In addition to Pape Maguette Yade, the other three Senegalese boxers eliminated are female flyweight Aminata Sy, female bantamweight Aminata Boiro and 2025 African Youth Games bronze medallist light-middleweight Saliou Diop.
Arema Ba, who currently works as fitness coach and trainer as well as a boxing coach, graduated to Star-1 coaching level in 2014.
“From 2013 to 2014 I worked as a development and research engineer for the national biogas program,” she said.
Was Arema Ba a boxer during her youth?
“I wasn’t a boxer. With my fitness coach career I became a Lesmills trainer in a concept called Bodycombat, an inspired mix martial arts group training,” she explained.
“I joined a boxing club to enhance my boxing skills. The coach and the staff thought that I was good at it. That’s how my path in boxing began. I initially became the physical trainer of the club.
They soon recognized how my work improved the boxers’ performance and that’s how I joined the national federation.
“Before all of this, I was a biological engineer, I made my own way in sport.”
We wish Arema Ba and the two senior coaches the best of luck in their remaining fights. Senegal entered 15 boxers, eight male and seven female boxers. All is not lost for the West Africans. They still have 11 boxers carrying their flag including 2025 African Youth Games female featherweight silver medallist Soda Faye.
The other two Moroccan boxers who won their fights are flyweight Mustapha Berhili and light-middleweight Marouane Jaafri while Benin’s bantamweight
Kenya’s lightweight Phelix Ochieng was among the 13 casualties on Day One. He was stopped in the first round by polished Kazakhstan’s southpaw Doszhan Zhuma Khan who hit the Kenyan boxer at will with pin-point accuracy.
While Ochieng showed he had the appetite for the fight, he failed to find the range against the swift Kazakhstan boxer, and was being punched repeatedly forcing the referee to waved it off after the second count of eight although the Kenyan was not hurt or dazed. Lessons learned Phelix. Don’t give up the fight you still have more boxing years ahead of you. If you believe in yourself you will eventually make it young man.
Full results of the 18* *African boxers on Day One, March 8, 2026
Round of 64 female 51kg
Senegal’s Aminata Sy lost to Vietnam’s Thi Thuy Nhi Le
Round of 32 54kg female
Algeria’s Seya El Naev vs Australia’s Belle Spicer. The Australian won on a walkover.
Round of 64 men 50kg
Algeria’s Riadh Belhaidouache was beaten 5-0 by Romania’s Ionut Madalin
Benin’s Barnabe Hounnougbe lost 4-1 to Australia’s Nathan Mlacic
Round 32 54kg female
Senegal’s Khadija Boiro was stopped by Germany’s Lorin Sayim
Morocco’s Manar Adnane lost 5-0 to Columbia’s Evelin Trejos
Benin’s Elizabeth Salanon beat Romania’s Andreea Negoita 5-0
Round 64 male 50kg
Morocco’s Mustapha Berhili outpointed Canada’s
Memphis McIntosh
Round 64 60kg male
Senegal’s Pape Maguette Yode retired in the first round against Morocco’s Youssef Hlaila
Egypt’s Adham El Sharkawy lost to Armenia’s Karen Zhakaryan
Algeria’s Abderraouf Redouani vs Thailand’s Siwa Chinarong
Round 64 men 70kg
Senegal’s Saliou Diop was stopped by Thailand’s Ananda Kingphanao
Round 64 men 60kg
Kenya’s Phelix Ochieng was stopped by Kazakhstan’s Doszhan Zhuma Khan
Equatorial Guinea’s Misael Andeke lost to Turkey’s Alparslan Civelek
Libya’s Tarik Abu Zead lost to Canada’s Jayden Willis
Round 64 men 70kg
Morocco’s Marouane Jaafri outpointed Mexico’s Jorge Nieblas
Libya’s Jihad Mohammed lost to Indonesia’s Victor Wenkang
