🥊 NENEZ BOXING ARCHIVE:
The day Dallas Mercenaries Ibrahim “Surf” Bilali and Mike “Spinks” Mutua fought at Nakuru
The eagerly awaited Kenya National Boxing League light-flyweight fight between Ibrahim Bilali and his close friend Mike Mutua had been the talk of town with fans of both boxers in Nairobi confident their idols will win.
They were both clubmates at Railways Starehe Boxing Club in Muthurwa Estate nicknamed Dallas where they were coached by Patrick “Mad” Okoth and Johnny Imbigo.
They knew each other very well. Bilali had by then been poached by the founder of Railways Starehe Charles Anjimbi who moved to Breweries from Dallas.
Anjimbi was impressed by Bilali’s sparkling show when he won the light-flyweight title in the national novices championships at Desai Memorial Hall.
The 16-year-old Bilali was then a form three student at Highway Secondary School in South B, and was sharp in class as well.
He was shorter than Mutua but very fast with dancing footwork and had already defeated him in the 1980 Junior Championships.
Bilali had by then won 13 fights and lost once to Undugu’s Joram “Hercules” Apudo but he later avenged the defeat.
Mutua, who had won 11 fights and lost three, enjoyed reach advantage over Bilali and was a southpaw but was not taking the fight lightly.
“Bilali is speedy and a clever boxer, it’s going to be a good fight for Nakuru fans,” said Mutua whose morale was boosted by his points victory over the more experienced Frank Ochieng during a league match between Kenya Police and Railways Starehe at Jericho Social Hall. It was Mutua’s second win against Ochieng having defeated him in the 1980 Kenya Open semi-finals and then Mutua lost to Army ‘s Ephraim Kanyari in the finals.
Ochieng, a good buddy, later relocated to the United States for further studies, and not much has been heard of him.since he moved to the US.
The other fight which had created interest was the bantamweight bout between Breweries’ 1972 Munich Olympian Felix Maina and southpaw Yahya “Chuchu” Mwami, brother to US-based Ali “Ojukwu” Athumani and Nasser “Silencer” Athumani.
Come the day of the Breweries vs Railways thriller at Nakuru’s Madison Square Garden, and fans were treated to action-packed light-flyweight encounter between Bilali and Mutua.
Bilali was on the move, bobbing and weaving to avoid Mutua’s onslaught. His reach advantage did not help him much as Bilali time and again showered combinations from body and then moved upstairs. Bilali’s speed, nimble footwork and more effective punches also helped him a great deal to win the fight by a unanimous decision.
Mwami outpointed Felix Maina at bantamweight but his victory was not enough to stop the bottlers from defeating Railways 18-13 points.
Bilali maintained his consistency and was capped in the Kenya vs Uganda international match at Jamhuri Park showground later in 1981, outpointing Godfrey Sempebwa.
Bilali’s victory over the Ugandan was the beginning of a success story for the son a Koran teacher.
The following year in 1982 in April without any exposure, Bilali punched his way to the finals of the prestigious King’s Cup Championships winning gold together with Kamau “Pipino” Wanyoike.
Bilali’s next stop was Brisbane, Australia for the Commonwealth Games. He was joined by his Dallas buddy Mike Mutua who qualified during the trials held at Desai Memorial Hall. Both Bilali and Mutua won gold medals in the Brisbane Commonwealth Games with Hussein “Juba” Khalili winning Kenya’s third gold medal.
The 1983 Africa Boxing Championships took place in Kampala, Uganda. I was at the ringside covering the one-week event, and once again Bilali put up a classic show to win the Africa flyweight title.
Bilali’s most notable and memorable achievement was at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, scooping a bronze medal in the flyweight division to win Kenya’s fifth medal at the Olympics, the other four coming from legendary Philip Waruinge who won bronze and silver at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics with his younger brother Sammy Mbogwa and Dick “Tiger” Murunga winning bronze medals in the 1972 Munich Olympics.
