EL boxer has plan to beat altitude bogey
The high altitude that often confronts coastal boxers will have minimum effect on East London fighter Aphiwe Mboyiya when he challenges Tshifiwa Munyai for the SA lightweight title in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, on Friday.
Most Eastern Cape boxers struggle at high attitude when fighting on the Highveld, with the latest to suffer that handicap being Mdantsane’s Phila Mpontshane, who struggled to breathe during his SA junior lightweight title defence against Sibusiso Zingange in Johannesburg in February.
Mpontshane surrendered the title in the fight and later blamed climatic conditions for his inability to keep up the pace against Zingange.
And with Gauteng having declared its intention to reclaim
all national titles from East London boxers, with the latest to do that being Mpumelelo Tshabalala when he stopped Xolisa Magusha to win the vacant SA junior flyweight diadem a fortnight ago, Mboyiya will be carrying the hopes of the province.
This is why his camp has left nothing to chance, including ensuring that he will be properly acclimatised.
“We are aware of this struggle of coastal boxers when fighting at high altitude areas and we have a strategy to
counter it,” Mboyiya’s trainer, Kholisile “KC” Cengani, said.
It has been suggested that coastal boxers should arrive in Highveld areas a day before their fight to avoid being affected by the altitude.
Others believe it is better to arrive a week in advance so that boxers can get their bodies used to the different climate.
Some boxers arrived a few days before their fight, leading to them being affected by the high altitude, which leads to difficulty in breathing.
Mboyiya attended the fight’s press conference in Witbank last week and Cengani advised his charge to wear his mask at all times.
“I even told him to sleep with his mask on because I do not want him to catch flu due to different climatic conditions.”
Mboyiya has made a remarkable recovery by vaulting himself back into the title mix after he suffered the ignominy of being banned for doping after his points win over Zingange in 2017. The outcome of that fight was later changed to a no contest.