The bad news for Ugandan boxing was clear on Friday

Some will say the actual showdown took place Saturday morning despite being penciled in as a Friday night fight. That could well be the only point of contention.

What can’t be contested by any scale or measure is that the abyss that has swallowed amateur boxing is deep. The sweet science is being blown by wind these days and is nowhere. It is neither here nor there. Boxing in the country is in a mist.

Kenneth ‘Bad News’ Odeke has already been written off as a fighter of no talent to elevate his value in the sport. Those verdicts, shared by many after his horror-show against Iranian Abbas Nassab, only told half the story.

The young man is a work in progress. But sometimes sport can be cruel. The fans who braved the night were hoping to see Odeke walk the talk by knocking out Nassab early. But after witnessing the opposite at 2.36am, they drew conclusions after palpable disappointment.
Odeke’s defeat exposed the disharmony in boxing that has left the sport on its deathbed. He rushed into turning professional perhaps owing to a lack of competition at amateur level. Odeke was rushed into walking before he could crawl.

We can blame him all we like for Friday’s nightmarish show; the lack of a jab, the poor movement, the ill-advised slugfest, poor footwork and a suspect defence. Yes, all those were evident against Nassab but they can be traced to poor honing as an amateur.

Increasingly, it is becoming fashionable for young boxers to fail to resist the urge of turning semi-professional. A good number are killing their potential by entering semi-professional boxing raw. That group has ended up producing journeymen.

The administrative squabbling that has taken forever in amateur boxing came to the fore in the Odeke-Nassib one-sided bout. Blaming Odeke is missing the point. Boxing needs to get its house in order.

The lack of structured competition has led to a dearth of young talented fighters. It is the reason why young men like Odeke are making barefaced decisions to join professional boxing when they are evidently raw and still learning the sweet science.
There are many other Odekes out there living in hope than expectation of professional boxing. It is foolhardy to ignore the basics of amateur boxing when you harbour hopes of a professional career.

There have been notable developments in boxing today; we have live televised fights, the number of promoters swells by the day and boxers have perfected the art of talking a big game.

That is all good and something to be celebrated. But it will all come to zilch if we do not get the most important aspect right - nurturing and developing young boxers to learn the art of the sport.

A winter World Cup will not enhance Fifa’s legacy

When the old men at Fifa voted for Qatar to win the right to host the 2022 World Cup, few people could have anticipated the extensive debates that would ensure in the aftermath.

As it is, the football world continues to ponder questions whose questions can’t be readily figured out. Qatar’s presentation in the bidding process was for a 2022 summer World Cup. But with temperatures going as high as 50 degrees, it is unlikely that the tournament will be played in such conditions.

So the other option for Qatar and Fifa is to stage the biggest showpiece in the game in winter. There are far-reaching ramifications if such a radical decision were to be passed by the men in Zurich.

Football calendars in the majority of the Fifa nations would have to be thought again to free the months of winter for the football to be possible. The whole process would be tedious, daunting and unfortunate.

All this could have been avoided by the Fifa executive members who, for whatever reason, didn’t heed the call of observers who had their misgivings about a Qatar bid.
If as expected a winter World Cup is passed by the world governing body, the legacy of Fifa would be tarnished.

The sky is the limit for 800m runner Musagala

Not all success in Moscow will be measured in medals and their precise colours. Some of the triumph will be manifested in how our young athletes show maturity against their more revered, better facilitated and motivated opponents.

Teenagar Ronald Musagala is one who has a bright future. Despite getting eliminated in the semi-finals yesterday, he showed he is a fine work in progress and will be a stronger 800m runner with more exposure and training.

There was never a chance of him returning to Entebbe airport with a medal. That was a given. What Uganda needed was to see him build confidence and give his very best effort. He won his heat and ran a decent race to narrowly miss out on reaching the final.

The 800m race is arguably the toughest and most technical race whose details can’t be grasped in your first IAAF World Chamspionship. There will be many more events for Musagala to learn when to move into the inside lane, when to engage gears and when to embark on the final kick.

Team Uganda wasn’t expecting him to deliver more than he did. He was under no pressure and in many ways acquainted himself well with the big stage. There are the 2015 Beijing Championships, 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and 2017 London Championships where Musagala will be expected to show his mettle.

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