Mugula in New Year bout

Mugula (R) connects to the head of Albanian Marko Henschke during their bout in October. Mugula recorded a third round knockout over Henschke. Photo by Ismail Kezaala

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Kickboxing. Although heading into the fight without a coach, Ronald Mugula says he is ready to beat Egyptian opponent Abdallah Hessen inside three rounds only. STORY ON P.23

Ronald Mugula says he is ready to beat his Egyptian opponent Abdallah Hessen in three rounds when the two face off at Freedom City on New Year’s Day.

That victory, though, will have to be achieved without a coach. This is after Mugula revealed that his longtime coach Thilo Schneider will not be by his ringside when he takes on Hessen in their scheduled five-round K1 world title fight.

“I failed to raise money in time for him to come but we have been communicating regularly. I am in good shape and have received some really good training from the guys here, Mugula said in an interview with Saturday Monitor at his training base in Bwaise, a Kampala suburb, early this week.

“There are some really good guys here like Bukenya Nasser and Mayanja Twaib who have been helping me out and they are very aggressive,” he said as he showed a slight bump above his knee he suffered while in one of the sessions with the spurring partners.

Mugula, whose record stands at 62 fights with 45 wins, 11 losses and six draws, last fought in October when he knocked out Marko Henschke in the third round.

His Egyptian opponent’s record stands at 23 wins and seven losses in his 30 fights to date.