Donga calls for boxing board appointment
FORMER Zimbabwe lightweight and middleweight boxing champion Mordecai Donga has called for the appointment of a new national boxing board, saying its absence was affecting professional boxers.
The last National Boxing Control Board was appointed by the then Sport minister Makhosini Hlongwane in 2017 and its tenure ran out last year.
Donga was part of that board.
The former boxing champion took to Facebook on Sunday and bemoaned the lack of boxing leadership which he said was hampering the growth of boxing and affecting professional pugilists in the country.
“Zimbabwe Professional Boxing needs a board. In Zimbabwe, I guess even in other countries, we have two bodies, the amateur and the professional boxing. The Zimbabwe Boxing Federation runs the amateur boxing and the professional boxing falls under a board, which is appointed by the Minister of Sport. Currently, there is no professional boxing board as we await the appointment of such board by the Sport minister. Such delays are affecting the proper administration and growth of the sport, mainly our professional boxers,” Donga said.
Richard Hondo bounced back in 2017, having led the previous board, but was removed by then Sports minister David Coltart in 2013, only to make a comeback under Hlongwane.
The board brought to the fore by Hlongwane had Donga, boxing trainer Thomas Kambuyi, Zenzo Nsimbi, Stella Motsi and Sipho Helen M’nyamana Rutsate.
Hondo took over from Paul Njerema, whose term had expired in 2016.
Donga intended to make a comeback into fighting in December 2019 against former WBC Silver welterweight champion Charles Manyuchi, but that fight never materialised after the latter pulled out.
All sporting activities were then suspended last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but government has since lifted the embargo.
Former World Boxing Federation African and national heavyweight, South Africa-based Elvis “Bulawayo Bomber” Moyo, had his fight against Romanian Bogdan Marius Dinu slated for Tanzania cancelled last month.
Dinu, world number 67, got an offer to fight a higher-ranked American boxer this month.
Due to two years of inactivity coupled with effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moyo, once in the top 100 in the world, is currently not ranked.