• ZIMBABWEAN boxer Charles Manyuchi (right) unleashes a punch onto Colombian boxer Devis Casseres during the WBC welterweight  international title fight held at Government complex in Lusaka on Saturday night. Picture by CLEVER ZULU

By SANDRA MWILA –
ORIENTAL Quarries Boxing Promotions (OQBP) says it is equally disappointed with the performance of the foreign boxers that came to fight Catherine Phiri and Charles Manyuchi last weekend.
OQBP manager Christopher Malunga said in an interview that boxers are usually picked by the World Boxing Council (WBC) based on their ratings and that his stable had nothing to do with the selection of boxers.
“I feel the fans have the right to complain after what they saw at the weekend because we are equally disappointed with the display of Bukiwe Nonina and David Cacresse.
But people need to know that these fights cannot be fixed because the boxers are picked by the WBC and the other thing people need to understand is that Catherine and Manyuchi’s standards of boxing have greatly improved,” Malunga said.
Catherine retained her WBC Silver bantamweight title after clobbering Nonina in two rounds while Cacresse refused to stand for the third round after he was badly beaten by Manyuchi, who retained his WBC International welterweight belt.
Malunga’s reaction comes in wake of complaints from fans who accused the stable of bringing ‘fake’ boxers.
“I totally agree with the fans that the quality of the boxers was not good enough to challenge Catherine and Manyuchi but who would have known when they were selected by WBC and they indicated they were ready,” Malunga said.
He said the aim of the boxing stable is to expose its pugilists to high profiled boxers and also to entertain the fans adding that Nonina and Cacresse might have just faced tougher opponents in Catherine and Manyuchi and failed to perform.
“We equally want to expose our boxers to tougher opponents for them to reach the levels of the likes of Floyd Mayweather and if you look at the record of Bukiwe, she is a South African champion and Cacresse has better record than Manyuchi. The Colombian has 21 fights of which 17 are wins,” Malunga said.
He also said that the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa has greatly contributed to the selection of quality boxers because most of the boxers outside the continent are scared to come for fear of contracting the deadly virus.
“If Morocco can shun hosting the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations because of Ebola, then it is possible that boxers are equally scared of the deadly virus because all they know is there is Ebola in Africa ,”he said.