From Kalule to Mugabi: how Ugandans prepared for big professional fights

Pick of a generation. Mugabi (R) and Kalule are arguably the greatest professional boxers Uganda has ever produced. PHOTOS BY ISMAIL KEZAALA

The next dawn, Ugandan Sharif Bogere faces Jose Luis Rodriguez in a non-title lightweight contest tonight, his 13th bout against Mexican opponents. It’s just last week that we knew ‘The Lion’ would roar again after a year’s absence, partly due to an Achilles’ tendon injury. So there has been no time for big build-ups to the main event organised by Mayweather Promotions at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas, Nevada. But ever imagined how Ugandans prepared for the big fights abroad? Read on

Kalule’s witchdoctor
On June 25, 1979, Ayub Kalule became the first African to win a world title in professional boxing, having turned professional in 1976. Kalule was unbeaten in 30 pro fights but his manager Mogens Palle had to first sue the World Boxing Association for denying his fighter a title shot.
When the hard-earned opportunity finally came, Kalule seized it by defeating four-time defending champion Masashi Kudo in Akita City, Japan, grabbing the WBA World Super Welterweight Title.
The Ugandan defended his title four times; all in Denmark, before making his American debut against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1981, in a fight many deemed a protracted duel of the 1976 Olympics. American Leonard won gold months after Kalule turned pro in Denmark.
In the build-up to the Kalule-Leonard fight, The Washington Post reported, “Kalule brought an entourage of 18 Danes, including manager, Mogens Palle; his trainer Voige Kroge, a doctor; a masseur; five journalists, and four photographers.”
According to Boxrec, Top Rank brought Ben Mugimba, a Ugandan witch doctor to Houston to drum up publicity. The Post reported “he stretched his arms toward the roof of the Astrodome, declared that he was having visions of Leonard and started tossing up pebbles.”
Mugimba had proposed to draw blood from Kalule’s forearm before the fight, and inject him with a l concoction of tropical fruit juices.
But Kalule disowned him, saying “I am embarrassed; why do they do this to me, like I am a fool? I didn’t just come out of the jungle. Take him away.”
After the incident, Mugimba said “I used my powers to evoke fright and emotions by Ray Leonard; we tried our weapon on his mouth. He had talked too much about beating Kalule, so I threw some of my rich water around him. I was calling on good fortunes for my countryman.”
Boxrec adds that Leonard sent an aide to the local library to research on Ugandan witch doctors. The aide reported that Ugandan witch doctors fear the black colour and snakes, which are too quick to put a spell on.
For the fight, Leonard wore black trunks with a yellow cobra head on the left leg.
Mugimba’s voodoo was defused: Kalule lost his title to Leonard, a ninth-round technical knockout.

Mugabi’s baptism in Nogales,
After that silver medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, John Mugabi launched a professional career under British promoter Mickey Duff.
Mugabi had knocked out all his 25 opponents, with only James Green lasting beyond six rounds. That ruthless streak earned him the moniker “The Beast” from Duff and his fervent fans in Tampa, Florida.
But Mugabi disliked the moniker: “Why do they call me this?” he told Sports Illustrated. “I am a quiet man… If somebody calls me Beast, I ask, ‘Gosh, what is he doing to me?’ I am a quiet man and a good man too, I think.”
Preparing for the match of his life, against 10-time defending champion Marvin Hagler, March 10, 1986 Mugabi was baptised a Roman Catholic with the names John Paul Mugabi in Nogales, on the US-Mexico border.
In the March 3, 1986 article, “This Beast Is A Beauty”, Sports Illustrated‘s Clive Gammon wrote that “Father Anthony Clark is from Davenport, Iowa, but on loan to Sacred Heart with a special responsibility for delinquent boys on both sides of the border…he recognised Mugabi at once.”
He used boxing to persuade young criminals off the streets and Mugabi, bred between the abject poverty and delinquent life of Nakawa in suburban Kampala, and Uganda’s political turbulence of the ‘70s, was the perfect source of inspiration to Father Anthony’s kids.
However, crossing the border from Mexico, Mugabi was denied entry into the US, his visa having expired. Father Anthony’s intervention did not help: he was one of the 11 defendants in a case accusing nuns and priests “of sheltering illegal immigrants from El Salvador.”
Mugabi, too, bargained in vain until Duff‘s lawyers sorted the matter.
Mugabi-Hagler, promoted by Bob Arum, who had fallen out with HBO, was the first fight on ShowTime.
Inside the ring, Mugabi’s punching power gave Hagler the hardest test, though the champion finally retained his middleweight titles with a technical knockout in the 11th round.

ABOUT THE PUGILISTS

KALULE. In 2013, Uganda Sports Press Association (Uspa) crowned retired pugilist Ayub Kalule as the 2012 Legendary Award winner. Kalule first shot to prominence when he won the AIBA Welterweight Title at the inaugural 1974 World Championships in Havana, Cuba. He went on to win titles at the Commonwealth Games. Six years later, Kalule had become WBA Junior Middleweight Champion among other wins. He was the first African to floor the world champion Sugar Ray Leonard in 1981. He won all the 46 professional fights and only lost four in his boxing career.

MUGABI. In 2015, legendary Ugandan boxer John Mugabi returned home for the first time after 28 years in the Diaspora. Mugabi bagged a silver medal during the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Popularly nicknamed as ‘The Beast’ for his devastating punching power, Mugabi won the WBC light middleweight title in 1989 and is still revered as one of the hardest punchers ever. The Mugabi versus Marvin Hagler showdown in 1986 is still regarded as one of the greatest fights in professional boxing history.