After Dakar, Covid punched boxing into a deadly stupor

Of the 14 Ugandans who have already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, only one is a boxer. Musa Shadir Bwogi secured his ticket to the Games by defeating Ghana’s welterweight Jesse Larte in the third-place box-off at the African Olympic Qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal in February.

Shadir’s 12 teammates, including four who reached the semifinals, hoped for a second chance at the final Olympics qualifier which was scheduled for May in Paris, before the Olympics were postponed.

The Uganda Boxing Federation was debating whether to start the qualification to Paris afresh or consider only those who had made the semis in Dakar.

The decision is pending but if the qualifiers are to be held in May 2021, as rescheduled, the build-up process is already delayed, not only because of lack of funds but also because combat sport has since March been under lock and key due to Covid.

In the due course, important competitions like the National Schools Championships, the Cadets, Intermediates and Open, have been skipped. This not only denies the upcoming boxers a chance to vie for places on the national team, but also complicates next year’s fixtures if the fighters resume action.

Yet this isn’t the first time in recent memory these major formative events are affected. The 2017-2018 calendar was affected by the elections and post-election wrangles as former UBF president Kenneth Gimugu threw all sorts of punches to challenger Moses Muhangi.

Nevertheless, the latter triumphed but as the dust settled, the National Cadets, Intermediates and the Schools Championships, which were meant to be in the last half of 2017, were delayed until late June 2018, while the National Open, usually held in January, was eventually abandoned.

These disruptions hampered the elite and youth teams which prepared hardly a month for the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast and the African Championship in Casablanca respectively. And the two bronze medals and a silver were clear evidence of poor selection and preparation.

Even Shadir has not had the due preparation for the Games since he qualified. He talked of camping in Kapchorwa earlier in the year before covid happened, but he has not. Neither has he competed again. His only consolation and imitation of competition was emerging the winner of the shadow boxing challenge which was organised by the federation in June.

Professionals no show
Professional boxing was hit even harder. Promoters and fighters counted losses after events were cancelled, gyms and downtown marketplaces where they earned a living, were closed due to Covid-19. The recovery might take even longer.

In the diaspora lightweight Sulaiman Segawa was a late substitute against American prospect Jamaine Ortiz on the undercards of Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr at the Staples Center, Los Angeles November 28. 

Despite little time to prepare, Segawa, who is based in Silver Spring, Maryland, put it a spirited fight before conceding a knockout in the seventh of eight rounds. He thus lost the vacant World Boxing Council United States (USNBC) Silver Light Title.
It was Segawa’s first knockout defeat, and third loss in 17 professional bouts (13 wins, 1 draw).
From the Scandinavia, veterans Michael Obin, 35 and Hamza Wandera, 37 were supposed to fight on the same card last weekend in Kosovo.
Obin, a brother to Jackson Asiku, looks forward to another fight in Belgium in January and a bigger one in April in his home town Arua.

Wandera, the little brother to world champion Kassim Ouma, was also looking to reignite a prize career that has continously stuttered. Unfortunately the Kosovo Fight Night didn’t happen.

Zebra’s cold blood death
In a year of many lows, the killing of former national boxing team captain Isaac ‘Zebra Mando’ Ssenyange this week was the worst way to end it. Zebra was shot close to his home in the Bwaise slum of Kampala by assailants who travelled in two vans commonly referred to as ‘Drones’. He was laid to rest in Masulita, Wakiso District yesterday.

Meet the president
Even in a year when all sports federations were badly constrained by the coronavirus restrictions, Fufa walked away with a whopping Shs10b of the Shs17.4b sports budget. Yet, unlike other bodies, the football federation got Covid relief package from Fifa worth $500,000 (nearly Shs1.9 billion).

UBF president Muhangi, who since last year launched a war against this “uneven distribution of the national sports cake” decided to engage a higher gear.

Perhaps realising that his single voice is not loud or clear enough to reach and attract Museveni’s attention, Muhangi convinced other federation heads to form the Union of Uganda Sports Federations and Associations, with the main purpose of forging a shortcut to meet and address their grievances to Museveni.

While justifying the formation of the union this month, Muhangi added that the Standard Operating Procedures under which sports must resume during the pandemic, “are very stringent on us and maybe if we meet and have a mature discussion with the President, he can relax some of them.”

However, the National Council of Sports chairman Donald Rukare castigated the move as one that seems to bypass and negate the role of the regulatory body. But whether Muhangi and co. will change their mind remains to be seen in 2021.

BRONZE and OLYMPIC TICKET
Musa Shadir Bwogi (69kg)

SEMIFINALS
Isaac Masembe (57 kg)
David Ssemuju (75kg)
Emily Nakalema (women’s 69kg)
Catherine Nanziri (women’s 51kg)

ROUND OF 16
Yasin Adnan (Lightweight (63 kg)
*Joshua Arthur Male (81kg)
Alexander Bwambale (91kg)
*Solomon Geko Kozaala (+91kg)
*Suzan Akello (women’s 57kg)
*Israel Rebecca Among (women’s 60kg)
*Doreen Nassali (women’s 75kg)

PRELIMINARIES
*Disan Mubiru (52kg)
*Did not win a single bout

[email protected]