BRUNO RIDES THE BUS
IT’S 4.30am at a deserted Gold Coast tram station. It’s raining. It’s ordinary.
This is how world-ranked super-bantamweight boxer Bruno Tarimo starts his day.
It’s a world away from his birthplace in the village of Rombo, Tanzania, at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro.
And it’s a world away from his wife and two young children in Bagamoyo.
A 20-minute bicycle ride to the station in the northern Gold Coast; a 20-minute ride on the tram; then a transfer to a bus for at least another 50 minutes; and finally a 10minute car ride to his training gym in Cudgen, northern NSW. Throw in a struggling Gold Coast traffic and that’s a two-hour journey to training.
For the 25-year-old who grew up sleeping on the ground, under a leaky roof with no money for school clothes and shoes, that two-hour journey is hardly a chore. He knows that twohour journey is worth it.
He’ll train, he’ll get stronger, he’ll get wiser and he’ll win his next fight.
When he wins his next fight, the next stage of the humble house he is building for his parents in Rombo will be completed with his winnings. The foundations are down. The roof is next. His purse will also go to his young family.
Because of international travel restrictions, Bruno has seen his family – wife Tausi Saidi, six-year-old son Briyan and three-year-old daughter Brightness - just once in more than two years.
He first came to Australia in 2018 to fight Billel Dib on the Gold Coast. He returned briefly to Tanzania but soon came back to Australia having already seen enough to convince him that it was where better opportunities and support lay. And the opportunity to create a better life for his family.
He remained training and fighting in Australia until a bout in Serbia in late 2019 allowed him to return to the Gold Coast via Tanzania, but since then COVID has meant daily video calls are the only means of seeing each other.
“When I got to see my family after Serbia a month felt like a week,” Bruno said.
“My daughter was one when I left the first time and she is now three. I miss her so much that I can’t spend my time with her.
“My son, he knows me, and when I got home, he ran straight up, hugging me and crying, but my daughter she didn’t really know who I was. Now she is starting to know because I speak to her every night on the phone.
“It is very hard on my wife. I told her I might be able to get home last December but then I couldn’t with the restrictions. She was very sad when I told her we’ll have to wait and to be strong as I miss her so much.
“But I am trying to make a better life for all of us.”
Bruno is working hard on securing permanent residency so his family can join him but while he patiently waits he knows the only thing he can control is training and fighting.
Boxing is Bruno’s life and he was determined to make it a success when working as a 17-year-old builder in Tanzania and someone suggested he take his Muay Thai skills to boxing where he could make some money. He fancied his chances because he was already extremely fit from his own training.
But his introduction to boxing didn’t go well.
When he found a gym – and by gym he means a group of people outside, few with shoes and only limited gloves ensuring bag work is done with bare knuckles – he was told they weren’t interested in someone who does Muay Thai with no money.
Undeterred, Bruno sat and watched before coming back the following day. The trainer was a little more generous.
“I go back the next day and the trainer says, ‘OK you want boxing’, he gives me gloves and tells me to fight this guy who was about 90 kilos and I was about 55,” Bruno said.
“I’d never punched properly as a boxer before, nothing. The other guy he was punching me and blood was going everywhere but I didn’t stop.
“Next day I go back and the trainer put me against two guys bigger than me. I went home cut and bleeding.
“My wife wanted to know why I went back and I told her it was how we could have a better life.”
Bruno kept going back, watching the other fighters and then training on his own every night following work. After a week, the trainer offered him his first professional fight.
“I got in the ring and felt so strong and fit and started punching and didn’t stop until I got a knockout in the third round,” he said.
Bruno was on his way. Seven years later he’s the world ranked 11 and 13 at super-bantamweight by the
IBF and WBA. He fought another 21 times in Tanzania for 20 wins. In the vagaries of Tanzanian boxing, his single loss at home was simply the reversal of a decision so his manager could clear a debt to organisers.
And just as frustration was creeping in at the amount of support and belief he was receiving from local officials there was an opportunity to fight in Australia.
The fight was against Dib at Tweed Heads and Bruno scored an upset majority decision.
Perhaps in no small part due to wife Tausi who, after watching videos of Dib late into the night at home before he left for Australia, promptly woke her husband at midnight and told him to go for a run or he wouldn’t be fit enough.
Manager Tony Tolj took over his dealings and after a brief return home, Bruno was back in Australia.
He knew no one in his adopted country and could not speak English but the risk was worth it.
Thanks to former Gold Coast light-heavyweight Benji Dimitrioski, his partner Nadene and one-month-old Ilijaz, he has a place to call home allowing him to focus on training.
Bruno joined the Cudgen stable of Angelo Hyder and Tony Nobbs.
It’s a no-nonsense fighters’ gym and Bruno suddenly had daily access to the best guidance possible but also regular sparring partners in world champion twins Jason and Andrew Moloney.
“It’s such a good gym,” Bruno said. “I wasn’t used to it. When I was training in Tanzania, I had no gloves, no shoes and you should have seen my hands. We had punching bags with no gloves, in bare feet.
“Angelo and Tony are great trainers and you have sparring partners like the Moloneys. Andrew and Jason, they teach me many things.
“I keep learning from the good sparring, which makes me smarter and stronger and gives me confidence to where I want to go.
“Everyone in Australia is helping me. Promoting me. I don’t want to let anyone down.”
Since arriving in Australia, Bruno has recorded five wins, with one loss and a draw, taking his career record to 25 wins with five knockouts, two losses and two draws. The loss in Australia was a points decision in a rematch against Dib.
A natural super-bantamweight at 55kg but with few Australian options and no one wanting to fight him in the division, Bruno regularly steps up to featherweight or super-featherweight at around 58kg.
His fight against the big punching Kye MacKenzie in Wollongong on Wednesday as part of the Paul Gallen v Lucas Browne undercard will be 10 rounds at superfeatherweight.
His last fight against former Olympian Paul Fleming in Sydney was at superfeatherweight. That bout was declared a draw after the doctor stopped the fight due to a cut over Fleming’s eye in the second round.
Unfortunately these fights do nothing for his superbantamweight ranking.
“Most people want to fight me at 58 so we have to risk it,” Bruno said.
“I’m at weight now for my next fight so I’ll deal with it. But I’d rather risk it. If I don’t fight, I don’t make money and if I don’t make money, I can’t help my mum and I can’t help my family.”
So the daily grind continues.
Rising at 3am; a coffee; two hours to the gym; two hours of training, most probably hard sparring; two hours back home; a quick nap and then personal training around home … usually a 17km run; the day ends with the highlight, talking to his wife and children.
“I don’t care how tough it is,” Bruno said. “My life is still better than from where I was brought up. It makes me stronger for what I need.
“If it was a little bit easier perhaps I will forget what I want.
“Boxing is my life. I never start anything before saying, please God help me.
“One day we’re going to show how good we are. I don’t want to be famous for just being in the media. My dream is to be famous and help my family. I don’t want to be famous for nothing.”
IF I DON’T FIGHT, I DON’T MAKE MONEY AND IF I DON’T MAKE MONEY, I CAN’T HELP MY MUM AND I CAN’T HELP MY FAMILY.” BRUNO TARIMO