🇹🇭 2nd World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Thailand from May 24 to June 2, 2024
GRAMANE, KABEJI OUT
▫️ All the six African boxers but in action on Monday were eliminated
Africa’s celebrated boxers, Rady Gramane (pictured) and Pita Kabeji, have joined the casualty list of African boxers who’ve been eliminated in the ongoing final Paris Olympics qualifiers in Bangkok, Thailand.
Six African boxers were in the ring on the fourth day of the weeklong event but only one – Ghana’s Ornella Sathoud – won her fight to the disappointment of boxing fans in Africa.
US-based doctor Sathoud beat Monica Langerova of Czech Republic in the middleweight division to move to the last 16 or pre-quarters if you like.
The southpaw Gramane, two-time Africa champion and world championships bronze medallist in 2022, went down 5-0 to Korea’s Asian Games bronze medallist Suyeon Seong. African Games light-heavyweight champion and twice Africa Elite Championships gold medallist Pita Kabeji of DRC was beaten 5-0 by Poland’s 2021 world youth silver medallist Jakub “Kuba” Straszewski.
It’s a painful body blow for Africa as Gramane and Kabeji were among the highly regarded boxers the continent was banking on to make an impression in the Bangkok tournament.
Two Kenyan boxers, light-heavyweight Edwin Okong’o and middleweight Elizabeth Andiego, like their comrades, realised winning at the big stage is a different ballgame altogether than what happens back home.
Ghana’s heavyweight Jonathan Tetteh was at sea. He could not cope up with the refined display of Cuban-born Azerbaijan Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist and 2021 world champion in Belgrade Loren Berto who defeated the Ghanaian 5-0 in the heavyweight round of 64.
Ring analysts are of the opinion it takes grit, wit, total concentration, quick thinking, proper calculation of punches, superb timing, a boxer’s personal initiative in the ring and creativity to hold your own in such big tournaments.
As Namibia’s southpaw boxer Tryagain Ndevelo said in an exclusive interview with AFBC Communications , there’s a tendency by most African boxers to use unnecessary power – fighting instead of boxing – and throwing punches at random without any calculation in mind. Ndevelo also attributed some losses to the wrong instructions at the corner in-between rounds from overzealous coaches playing to the gallery just to be seen by fans and captured by TV cameras they’re giving instructions to their boxers but in reality they don’t know how to read the game and end up offering a wrong strategy to their boxers. This is where a boxer’s personal initiative, independence of mind and natural knowledge of the game is crucial to earn victory.
Indeed African boxers have that warrior blood in them. Some want to inflict injury to their opponents instead of scoring points.
Matters are not helped by the sadistic cheering crowd urging their boxer to exert more force to inflict injury to his/her opponent. Chants of ua! ua! (kill! kill!) are common in Kenya tournaments yet the aim of boxing in particular amateur is to outwit your opponent by landing more accurate punches on target to score points without getting hit in return.
This is why the International Boxing Association (IBA) will have to review the officiating rule that says a scoring blow must land with power. Why power or authority for that matter? So long as a punch hits the target, that’s a point even if it’s tapping.
Against this background, the machoism and sadism displayed by some boxers is understandable. Interestingly, the female boxers don’t use a lot of power but their punches are still counted.
Whichever way we look at the Bangkok tournament, African boxers must refine their approach and be constantly reminded boxing is an art, and therefore the most important thing in the ring is to score with accurate punches on target using the knuckle part of the glove. It’s not war. It’s a competition of wits, craftiness, total concentration, power of the mind and of course general intelligence.
It goes without saying lack of the aforementioned ingredients among some African boxers also contributes to their ineptitude in the ring not to mention making full use of the power of the mind to get the better of their opponents. The Russians are very smart when it comes to making use of all the faculties of the mind, and this is also the undoing of some African coaches lacking such extra knowledge on how a boxer can effectively use the faculties of the mind to his/ her advantage.
Perhaps they should also borrow a leaf from Cuba’s double Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion Julio Cesar La Cruz whose approach makes boxing look so simple and fun to watch. He has the power but you’ll not see him displaying that warrior blood in him. He strictly follows the basic principle in boxing: hit the target to score points and avoid being hit in return. And if your opponent scores make sure you cancel his points immediately by landing several target blows and move out fast without being hit and maintain your lead. This simply boils down to mathematics of addition and subtraction but some African boxers once in the ring lose concentration, and as a result fall victims of the sadistic cheering crowd. At times boxers lose fights due a lapse in concentration.
That said, and from what I’ve observed elsewhere, one would ask is this machoism and sadism in boxing confined to Africa only? Are African boxers the only ones throwing punches at random, or is biased officiating to be blamed at times, robbing the continent of worthy medallists like it has happened in the past Olympics and even last year in Tashkent we watched Zambia’s Patrick Chinyemba openly denied victory he deserved in the World Championships.The jury is out here.
Still on Bangkok, the rate at which the African boxers are falling has already caused anxiety among the boxers, leaders and the boxing fraternity in the continent as a whole.
Could this be a repeat of the Italy debacle when all the 68 African boxers failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics?
For now of course it’s still early to say the Italy massacre will repeat itself in Bangkok.
Let’s imagine nothing happened in Italy, and wish the remaining African boxers the best of luck on the Road to Paris which appears not to be smooth and easy at all in Bangkok as Uganda Boxing Federation President Moses Muhangi said at the start of the qualifiers.
The boisterous Muhangi told AFBC Communications the Bangkok qualifiers will be the easiest, and that his three boxers will make it to Paris because most of the tough boxers succeeded in the continental qualifiers and in Italy.
As I write now, two of Muhangi’s top boxers are on the casualty bench nursing their wounds. The Uganda boxing supremo has since coiled his tail between his legs and maintained a loud silence on his earlier proclamation. Whether the man from “matoke” land will swallow his words is anybody’s guess.
For now he can take solace on his popular Champions League in Kampala which he says is aimed at empowering the boxers financially not necessarily winning medals that can’t put food on the table.
That’s a reasonable approach and makes a lot sense but the boxing supremacy of any nation is measured by the success of their boxers in major competitions, and that’s where some of them also land lucrative professional boxing and endorsement deals from sports goods manufacturers and influential promoters.
Meanwhile, over 10 African boxers are in action in today’s schedule in Bangkok. Boxing fans and officials are holding their breath and praying for a good outcome to boost the morale of the participants as well as Africa’s flagging fortunes in the Far East.
✍🏼 AFBC Communications