Kenyan pros turn to shadow boxing as bouts fail to take off

Kenya's Rayton Okwiri and Pascal Bruno (left) of Tanzania fight in middle weight 8 rounds bout in Nairobi on 24th March, 2019.

Although Kenyan professional boxers won and retained a few titles, it was a year that left many boxers a disappointed lot.

Despite engaging in rigorous training sessions, most of their planned fights never took off.

It was a painful experience to some boxers who suffered cancellation of some of their bouts without notification.

Some of the most affected were Commonwealth super welterweight champion Sarah 'The Angel of war' Achieng' and former Africa Boxing Union super middleweight champion Rayton 'Boom Boom' Okwiri.

Achieng' saw two of her professional bouts cancelled at the eleventh hour, despite having spent most of her time and resources in training sessions for over two months. It was the same case with Okwiri, whose latest aborted fight on Monday night was against former International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior middleweight champion Kassim Ouma, of Uganda.

One of Achieng's cancelled matches was the lucrative Women International Boxing Federation (WIBF) super lightweight (63.5kg) title fight against Tunisian born German Ikram Kerwat in Cleveland, Ohio in the United States of America. It was scheduled for June 11.

The other one was when she was set to defend her Commonwealth title against Malawian soldier Ruth Chisale at Charter hall in Nairobi on September 25, before it was pushed to October 2, but in both occasions, nothing came to pass.

Later, it emerged that Covid-19 restrictions were the main reasons for the two cancellations.

The fight was later set for October 20, against new opponent Anisha Basheel of Malawi. Achieng' easily won the 10 round fight in Nairobi.

"When officials postpone a fight and fail to tell me in good time, they (officials) don't know the dynamics, logistics and morale we boxers go through," Achieng' said in a past interview.

On December 16, Achieng' successfully defended the title after she knocked out Chiedza Homakoma of Zimbabwe in the eighth round of the 10-round fight at Charter Hall, Nairobi.

That was the best achievement by any local professional boxers this season.

By retaining the title, Achieng' hinted at the possibility of going for a global title under the auspices of one of the four prestigious global professional boxing bodies in World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Federation (WBF), World Boxing Association (WBA) or International Boxing Federation (IBF).

Her aim is to equal the record of former World Boxing Council super-bantamweight champion Fatuma Zarika.

On his part, Okwiri missed the 10-round-fight against World Boxing Federation (WBF)-Africa middleweight champion Suleiman Kidunda of Tanzania at Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, on December 11.

The fight came just after Okwiri lost in his first fight since he joined the paid ranks five years ago after he was knocked out by Emmany Kalombo of Democratic Republic of Congo in an International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-middleweight title fight in Johannesburg, South Africa in July. Kalombo knocked-out Okwiri in the round 8 of the fight.

"My loss to Kalombo was due to an injury I suffered during the match. It didn't mean I was a weak fighter," Okwiri said then.

In his aborted fight against Ouma, Okwiri had demanded to be paid first part before taking the ring.

Sources had warned Okwiri to demand part-payment before the match.

Asked why boxers had to miss such crucial matches, Kenya Professional Boxing Commission President Reuben Ndolo said their work is just to sanction the fight and not organise for the same.

"Our work is to sanction fights and give boxers licenses to proceed on with the matches. The work to ensure fights succeed and boxers are paid belongs to the promoters," said the KPBC boss.

On April 9, Okwiri appealed to WBC for the ABU super middleweight belt be returned back to him after the reigning champion David Tshema featured in the Africa Zone Three Championships in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The appeal came after Okwiri was stripped off the ABU super middleweight title after he competed in the 2020 Africa Olympic qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal in February 2020.