Ša„iso gra…io—s in deˆea–
MBABANE - “It could have gone either way.”
This is the reaction of Eswatini top pugilist Thabiso Dlamini, who is based in Russia.
The season had his International Boxing Association (IBA) championships dream crushed after being defeated 0-5 by Zhantoro Tashiev from Kyrgyzstan in the Light Welterweight division. Kyrgyzstan or the Kyrgyz Republic is a landlocked country in Central Asia.
Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north; Uzbekistan to the west; Tajikistan to the south; and the People’s Republic of China to the east. Reciting on his short journey on the biggest stage in boxing,
Thabiso said he was proud of his performance despite the defeat.
“It was a great game. This was my first competition in the Under-68kg division after having sat down with my coach to try competing in another category. I was so comfortable in the fight and it was a close fight which could have gone either way. If I was able to play such a close game against such countries that tells me that going oversees is helping me a lot.
Rust
“That there was no ring rust in my fight is a big improvement and the project that I’m doing with my coach, people back home will see that this will pay off at the end,” he said. Dlamini went on to say that he was happy to fight a strong left-handed opponent. “I use to have a problem fighting left-handed boxers because when fighting we stand differently but now I’m able to do battle against them. Overall I’m very proud of my performance,” he added.
The 2010 Zone VI (now Region V) gold medalist represented Eswatini in the Tokyo Olympics early last year, but could not make the grade. Early this year he was in Morocco to compete in the Golden Belt Series, which was his first fight of the year.