From ELIAS CHIPEPO In Brazzaville, –
MIDDLEWEIGHT boxer Ben Muziyo restored Zambia’s battered pride by clobbering Senegalese Fall Mamadou to be just a win away from being guaranteed a medal at the 11th edition of the All Africa Games (AAG) in Congo Brazzaville.
With veteran Precious Makina and Charles Lumbwe exiting the competition following their Tuesday night beatings, Muziyo did what was expected of him to redeem Zambia’s pride.
Makina and Lumbwe fell to Ethiopian opposition to bring the number of Zambians who have been pounded out of the AAG to five.
However, it was not an easy win for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist as he had to dig deep to beat a determined Mamadou, winning unanimously 3-0 on points.
Today Muziyo has a showdown with Tunisia’s El Mekechri Yahia, ranked fourth at the tournament.
“The fight was tough and I knew I had to win it in the first round because he is a tough boxer who came back strong in the second round but I managed to hold him till I won. It was not easy after watching my friends lose because I knew everyone was looking up to me,” said Muziyo after the fight.
Muziyo, ranked second at the tournament, said he was confident of minting a medal but opted not to promise the colour.
He, however, promised to give Yahia a good beating.
His win came as a relief to the Zambian delegation who earlier watched Makina and Lumbwe pummelled in their respective fights, leaving the mantle to Muziyo and Timothy Chesu, who was expected to fight last night.
Makina was, however, unfortunate as he lost the fight after sustaining a deep cut on his left upper eye following an elbow from Haili Georges Melese, though the incident was not seen by the officials.
The veteran Zambian boxer dominated the first round until the third when Melese elbowed him and the fight was stopped in favour of the Ethiopian after Makina sustained a cut.
Lumbwe started his fight against Feyisal Muhamed on a sound note, throwing hard punches but failed to match his opponent’s ring craft.
The Zambian managed to open a cut on Muhamed’s upper right eye but it was not deep enough to stop the fight which the latter went on to win, thanks to his good tactical approach to the fight.
“I wanted to knock him out but he was just too fast for me. It’s painful, I didn’t expect to lose but I made some mistakes and I lost,” said a dejected Lumbwe.
Coach Kennedy Kanyanta said he was saddened that his aim of having at least five boxers in the semi finals failed to pay off and attributed this to lack of adequate time to prepare the boxers.
Kanyanta said he was hurt that Makina lost his fight he was winning but accepted the two boxer’s defeats and praised them for a good fight.
“It is not what we expected for we wanted a 65 per cent performance from the boxers to see us reach the semi finals where we are assured of a medal. Charles fought a good boxer and he failed to match his manoeuvres inside the box.
On Muziyo’s quarter final opponent, Kanyanta said he was confident his boxer would win despite the Tunisian not being a pushover.
“For Precious, he was leading but sadly he was elbowed and the fight had to be stopped due to his bleeding. We would have done better had we prepared in 90 days than 21 days,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chesu will be hoping for a good fight when he steps into the ring against Molalapata Kefentse of Botswana.