AFBC Boxing

🇨🇩 Countdown to Africa Elite Men and Women Boxing Championships, Kinshasa, DR Congo, October 14-27

MOROCCO LAND IN DRC
▫️ In the team of 23 boxers to defend their overall title is a Cuban head coach, 13 newcomers and some of their regulars used to high octane battles.

A CONFIDENT Morocco's national boxing team of 23 boxers - 11 men and 12 women - has landed in Kinshasa with a Cuban head coach and sounded a warning to DR Congo's team: We are Moroccans, we are irresistible, we are persistent and we are here to beat you at home and retain our title.

The Cuban coach Austin Echemendia is part of a new technical team brought on board by the Royal Moroccan Boxing Federation (FRMB) to replace the previous one led by National Technical Director Othmane Fadli which was dissolved after what the federation felt was a poor show in the Paris Olympics and failure by the male boxers to qualify for the Olympics.
Echemendia will be assisted by five Moroccan coaches who include three-time Olympian, 2015 gold and 2011 silver medallist in the Africa Elite Championships Mohamed Arjaoui.

The national team coordinator, Nabil Hilmi, announcing the DRC squad and the new changes, said in a sweeping move to inject new blood in the team, the Moroccans have selected 13 newcomers - six men and seven women - to bolster their title defence ahead of the highly anticipated Africa Elite Boxing Championships which gets underway today with arrival of teams, entry checks and draws and then the tournament proper starts on Wednesday, October 16. The 13 boxers making their international debut were not handpicked but were selected in the national championships on merit.

"We have to build a new strong team, and give the upcoming boxers exposure at the big stage," said Hilmi who has been mandated to shop around for the National Technical Director to replace Othmane Fadli. They have also recruited another Cuban coach, Juan Carlos, to handle the national team for the World Youth Championships in Montenegro this month.

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🇨🇩 Countdown to the Africa Elite Boxing Championships, Kinshasa, DR Congo, October 14-27

MOROCCO TO DEFEND TITLE
▫️ The North Africans won the overall crown with a record eight gold medals in last year's Africa Championships in Yaounde.

Morocco will defend the overall title in this year's Africa Elite Boxing Championships scheduled for Kinshasa, DR Congo, from October 14-27.

The Secretary-General of Royal Moroccan Boxing Federation (FRMB) Zoubida Wissam confirmed the North Africans will participate in the DRC tournament.

"We will definitely be there," said Zoubida but did not release more details on the composition of their team.

Morocco won last year's tournament in Yaounde, Cameroon, with a record eight gold, two silver and three bronze medals.

The eight gold medallists were minimumweight Yasmine Mouttaki, flyweight Said Mortaji, female bantamweight Widad Bertal, men's bantamweight Azoui Imad, featherweight Soulaimane Samghouli, middleweight Mohamed Rabii, cruiserweight Mohammed Assaghir and heavyweight Khadija Mardi.

Silver: light-flyweight Rabab Cheddar and welterweight Oumayma Bel Ahbib.

Bronze: featherweight Nouhalia Hlioui, lightweight Nesrine Amine and light-welterweight Nadir Andelhaq.

The composition of the technical team is yet to be known after the Royal Moroccan Boxing Federation dissolved the entire technical management team led by Othmane Fadli after the Paris Olympics.

Immediately on return home, the federation president Abdeljaoud Beljaj convened an emergency meeting to discuss what they felt was a dismal performance by their three female boxers at the Paris Olympics after which the technical team was shown the door. The federation is also not amused by failure of their male boxers to qualify for the Paris Olympics and their luckluster performance in the World Olympic Qualifiers.

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ZAMBIA'S STAR BOXER PATRICK CHINYEMBA PROMOTED
▫️ The newly-crowned IBA Africa flyweight champion is now a Staff Sergeant

The National Olympic Committee of Zambia extends its heartfelt congratulations to Zambia’s boxing sensation, Patrick 'Baddo' Chinyemba (pictured left), on his well-deserved promotion from Sergeant to Staff Sergeant by Zambia National Service (ZNS) Commander Lieutenant General (Engr) Maliti Solochi II. This commendation comes in recognition of Chinyemba’s outstanding performance in the International Boxing Association (IBA) African Night Flyweight engagement last month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

On 17 August 2024, Chinyemba defeated Ghanaian boxer Theophilus Lopez Allotey via a technical knockout in the fourth round during the IBA Champions Night.

During the presentation at ZNS Headquarters, Lt Gen Solochi urged Chinyemba to continue his journey with unwavering patriotism and dedication. He emphasized that representing Zambia goes beyond the sport, calling on the newly promoted Staff Sergeant to uphold the values of discipline, loyalty, and professionalism in both his boxing career and military service.

The ZNS Commander also encouraged all sportsmen and women to conduct themselves with integrity, both on and off the field, and to avoid public disputes or unguarded social media engagements. He highlighted the importance of discipline and respect, values that distinguish uniformed personnel.

Chief of Sports, Brigadier General Freeman Kafimba, praised Chinyemba’s achievements, noting that he is the only boxer from Zambia to have won twice in the prestigious IBA African Night series. Chinyemba’s first victory was last year in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where he outpunched Russia’s Artur Nagapetian in a six-round flyweight bout. Brig Gen Kafimba proudly presented Chinyemba as Zambia’s boxing poster boy, further establishing him as a rising star in the sport.

In support of Chinyemba’s continued growth, Zambia Boxing Federation (ZBF) President Mr. Dan Chiteule appealed for greater exposure, calling for both local and international boxers to train alongside him. The Federation is committed to helping Chinyemba defend his title.

🇨🇩 Countdown to the Africa Elite Boxing Championships, Kinshasa, DR Congo, October 14-27

MOREIRA TO DEFEND HER TITLE
▫️ The Africa welterweight champion has confirmed she will be in DRC aiming to retain her title

Stylish Ivanusa Moreira of Cape Verde (pictured) is one of the big names to grace the Africa Elite Boxing Championships next month in Africa's music capital, DR Congo.

Moreira, the reigning Africa welterweight champion, is currently training at Gentleman & Ali Boxing Club in Porto under her coach and hubby Jorge Silva.

"I am focused on my training, preparing for the best boxing I can get. I don’t think about my opponents," Moreira told me in a phone chat from Porto responding to a question on the opponents she thinks will be a stumbling block in her title defence.

The main battle in the welterweight division will be between Moreira and DR Congo's Mandela African Cup champion Brigitte Mbabi who has defeated Moreira twice so far.

On whether there's any rivalry and bad blood between them, Moreira said:"Me and Brigitte have become very good friends, she is such a nice girl but in the ring let the best woman win."

Moreira won a gold medal in last year's Africa Elite Championships in Yaounde, outpointing Morocco's Bel Ahbib Oumayma in the finals after seeing off Uganda's footballer-turned- boxer Emily Nakalema in the semi-finals.

The Cape Verde's face of women's boxing single handedly enabled her country to finish in the eighth position in Yaounde ahead of some teams which had over five boxers.

At this year's Paris Olympics, Moreira was unlucky to have been a victim of questionable officiating, losing on points to Belgium's Onisha Derieuw in the round of 16.

"It's just unbelievable judges can be so unprofessional, I'm bitter and feel wasted," said a furious Moreira when I sought her views on the decision.

"Some of us African boxers are being robbed here in Paris, we win but the judges deny us victory."

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🇨🇩 Countdown to the Africa Elite Boxing Championships, Kinshasa, DR Congo, October 14-27

KINSHASA IS READY TO HOST AFRICA ELITE BOXING EVENT
▫️ Top DR Congo federation official Pierre Ambongi allays fears of Mpox interfering with the Africa premier boxing tournament

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is ready to host the 21st edition of the Africa Elite Men's and Women's Boxing Championships from October 14-27 in Kinshasa.

That's the assurance from the Deputy Secretary-General of the DRC Boxing Federation Pierre Ambongi who ruled out Mpox epidemic as a threat to Africa's premier boxing event.

"The disease does not exist in Kinshasa, out of the 26 provinces of the DRC only four are affected. All the affected provinces are 2,000 kilometers from Kinshasa," said Ambongi.

"Therefore I want to assure all participating countries there's no cause for alarm, Mpox will not interfere with the Africa Championships tournament, and there are no restrictions at the airport.

"We're ready to stage the tournament. On Friday we hosted AFCON 2025 football qualifying match between DRC and Guinea in Kinshasa at the Stade des Martyrs. The match brought together more than 60,000 people. Otherwise life in Kinshasa is going on normally and people are busy with their daily activities."

This week the DRC government received 99,100 doses of Mpox vaccine to launch a vaccination campaign aimed at curbing the spread of the disease in the four affected provinces.

Ambongi said they expect over 40 countries to take part in the Africa Elite Championships. Today (September 11), the Minister in charge of sports Didier Budimbu will launch the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to kick off the countdown to the event.

Meanwhile, the DRC national boxing team which has been preparing for the Championships in Lubumbashi will move their training camp to the neighbouring Congo Brazzaville. The team is being handled by head coach Toussaint Lofanga assisted by Baoba Ilunga. DRC finished second to Morocco in last year's tournament in Yaounde, Cameroon.

"We're not taking any chances as the hosts. This time we want to win the tournament," said Ambongi.

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🇫🇷 2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26 - August 10

PINA, KHADIJA CARRYING AFRICA'S HOPES TODAY
▫️ The Cape Verdean boxer is in crucial semi-finals and Khadija in the quarters

Cape Verde's sensation David Pina and Morocco's world champion Khadija Mardi carry Africa's aspirations in today's 18-bout card featuring 10 semis and eight quarters.

Pina, after scoring an upset win over fancied Zambia's Africa flyweight king Patrick Chinyemba, meets Uzbekistan's world champion Hasanboy Dustamatov in flyweight semi-finals while Khadija battles world silver medallist from Australia Catlin Parker.

The 28-year-old Pina has been in scintillating form this year, and made his intentions known at the first world qualifiers in Busto Arsizio, Italy, where he shocked Spain's world bronze medallist Martin Molina with a 3-2 victory.

He failed to make it in Italy but carried his sparkling form to Bangkok, Thailand, in the second world qualifiers. A confident Pina, boosted by thorough preparations, displayed a textbook show to deservedly book his Paris Olympics ticket in style.

He's not shaken by the credentials of the big names in the flyweight class in Paris.

"I believe we're all in the same level, some of them are even afraid of fighting me," said Pina in a telephone interview from Paris.

Pina's victory over Spain's Molina is one of his highlights this year and says March 3, 2024, will forever remain etched in his record books.

"I'm so happy I won my first fight against a big name opponent whom many people thought would win easily," says Pina.

"He won the first round 3-2, my coach (Bruno Carvalho) then encouraged me in between the rounds, he told me I must win the fight because it's very important to our plans with him this year. I then took charge and won the second round, the third was even but I was more aggressive."

A father of two children, Hellen who's seven years old and three-year-old Miller, Pina made his presence felt in Cape Verde's boxing circles in 2013 when he won the national light-flyweight title.

"By then I was just 17 years old but I proved myself," recalls Pina who celebrates his 28th birthday next Wednesday, August 7, in Paris.

🇫🇷 2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26 - August 10

WHO WINS AFRICA'S FIRST BOXING MEDAL IN PARIS TONIGHT?
▫️Zambia's Chinyemba and Cape Verde's Pina in a do-or-die quarter final battle today

Africa was already assured of one medal in the bag when Zambia's Patrick "Baddo" Chinyemba and Cape Verde's David Pina punched their way to the quarter-finals on Tuesday this week in the Paris Olympic Games.

What now remains to be known is who between the two stylish boxers will win the medal when they trade leather in the eagerly awaited bout tonight at the North Paris Arena.

It's fire for fire as boxing fans brace up for what promises to be an action-packed and entertaining bout between these two sons of Africa with almost similar boxing styles.

What's inevitable is that they'll have to put aside their African brotherhood and uncork bombs on each other in search of prestige and fame that accompanies an Olympic medal winner.

Chinyemba is the undisputed African flyweight king and has often told us in our interviews he has no opposition in Africa, and is boiling for a fight against boxers of his standard such as world champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan whom he is likely to meet in the semi-finals if he defeats Pina. Dusmatov is also in the quarters and favoured to get past Kazakhstan's Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist and 2021 world champion Saken Bibossinov

The Zambian has defeated most of the leading African flyweights including Pina whom he outpointed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifiers in Senegal.

To make it the quarters, Chinyemba outpointed India's illustrious Amit Panghal while Pina saw off Thailand's Thitisan Panmot in the round of 16 bouts.

Besides doing Africa proud, both boxers have different motivational goals ahead of them.

Chinyemba is aiming to end Zambia's 40-year drought by winning their second Olympics boxing medal since the late Keith Mwila won their first medal - a bronze - and the only one so far at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics while Pina wants to win Cape Verde's first ever Olympics boxing medal.

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🇫🇷 2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26 - August 10

THEBE: "MOREIRA WON HER FIGHT CLEAN BUT SHE WAS ROBBED"
▫️ Roumaysa, Moreira and Alcinda latest African boxers to bow out of Paris Olympics
▫️ Eighteen African boxers eliminated, only five left in the battle for top honours

Botswana's national boxing team head coach Thebe Setlalekgosi said today Cape Verde's Africa welterweight champion, Ivanusa Moreira, was robbed of a deserved victory in her last 16 bout against Belgium's Oshin Derieuw who won 3-2.

Moreira is among the three African boxers who lost their fights in the last session on Thursday, August 1. Others are Algeria's flyweight Roumaysa Boualam beaten 5-0 by Aira Villegas of Philippines and Alcinda Dos Santos of Mozambique who went down by a similar score of 5-0 to China's world champion Yang Liu.

"Moreira in my opinion was robbed, she won all rounds but the judges gave her the first two rounds," said a fuming Setlalekgosi.

"I was actually very impressed with her work rate, of course it's the Olympics all boxers are there to win. She did very well to be honest, she was very strong the first two rounds, the last round was very close."

With the three boxers out, Africa remains with only five boxers in the competition. They are flyweights Zambia's Patrick Chinyemba and Cape Verde's David Pina who meet in the quarter-finals on Friday, August 2, Tunisia's featherweight Khouloud Hlimi, Morocco's Khadija Mardi and Algeria's Imane Khelif.

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🇫🇷 2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26 - August 10

MUXANGA AFRICA'S 13TH BOXER TO EXIT PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
▫️ On Thursday six African female boxers are in action

Mexico's Pan American Games 2023 light-middleweight champion Marco Alonso Alvarez claimed Africa's 13th victim at the Paris Olympics boxing tournament on Wednesday, July 31.

He scored a 3-2 points victory over Mozambican Commonwealth Games silver medallist Tiago Muxanga in a scrappy bout characterized by wild punches.

Unliken in his first fight, Muxanga lacked composure against the Mexican and decided to fight instead of boxing him.

With that defeat, Muxanga becomes the 13th African boxer to make an exit in the Paris Games with ten boxers now remaining in the battle for top honours.

Six African female boxers are in action on Thursday, August 1, with Morocco's bantamweight Widad Bertal featuring in the quarter-finals while Algerian flyweight Roumaysa Boualam, and welterweights, DR Congo's Brigitte Mbabi, Algeria's Imane Khelif, Cape Verde's Ivanusa Moreira and Alcinda Dos Santos of Mozambique appearing in the pre-quarters.

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🇫🇷 2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26 - August 10

MARDI IN QUARTER-FINALS
▫️ She meets Australia's Catlin Parker

World champion Khadija Mardi squeezed her way to the quarter-finals with a 3-2 win over Britain's Chantelle Reid in a middleweight round of 16 bout at the North Paris Arena on Wednesday, July 31.

The Moroccan double African champion now meets Australia's world championships silver medallist Catlin Parker in the quarter-finals on August 4.

Khadija did not use her height advantage effectively, allowing her shorter British opponent room to score on the clinch. She was too caution in her approach.

Against Parker, Khadija will have to be more aggressive and throw punches in bunches to keep Parker at bay.

✍🏼 AFBC Communications

🇫🇷 2024 Paris Olympic Games, July 26 - August 10

KHADIJA MARDI LEADS AFRICA
▫️ The towering Moroccan world heavyweight champion today starts her quest for Olympic gold
▫️ Three African boxers in today's schedule

Charismatic Moroccan world and Africa heavyweight champion Khadija Mardi today, July 31, takes on Britain's Chantelle Reid in the round of 16 middleweight class in Day 5 of Paris Olympic Games boxing tournament.The heavyweight class in Paris has 16 boxers.

Mardi has been forced to shed off some kilograms to make it to the 75kg category because there's no women's heavyweight berth in the Olympics.

She leads Africa's elusive campaign for gold in the Paris Olympics. The last time Africa won gold was at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics through Algeria's late lightweight Hocine Soltani who also won bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics at featherweight.

With the world gold medal under her belt, Mardi is one of the red-hot favourites for the middleweight crown in Paris.

A gold medal will be a fitting climax to her illustrious career.

In Africa, Mardi has no opposition having flattened all opponents some of whom have now become her regular customers.

Mardi won African Games gold in 2019 & 2023, and in the Africa Elite Championships she won gold in 2022 & 2023.

At the big stage, in addition to her world title she clinched in New Delhi last year, Mardi won bronze and silver at the 2019 and 2022 world championships respectively.

The Moroccan darling of women's boxing made her Olympic debut in 2016 in Rio, losing in the quarter-finals to Kazakhstan's 2015 Female Boxer of the Year, Dariga Shakimova who settled for bronze in Rio.

Mardi's opponent, Chantelle Reid, is the current England national middleweight champion.

She's making a comeback to big-time boxing after being out for six years due to a back injury. She won gold in the 2014 European Junior Championships and and bronze in the 2015 World Youth Championships.

The other two African boxers in the round of 16 action today are Mozambican star boxer Tiago Muxanga vs Mexico's Marco Al and Egypt's Omar Elawady vs reigning world champion, Uzbekistan's Asadkhuja both in the light-middleweight class.