LET me start this week’s piece by joining others in extending my hearty congratulations to Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Benny Muziyo on his elevation from a lance corporal to corporal in the Zambia Army.
Muziyo was the lone boxer who redeemed boxers’ hopes for a medal at the Glasgow Games.
His recent promotion by Zambia Army Commander Paul Mihova goes to prove that winner takes all and that boxing still remains a sport from which Zambia can achieve international honour and glory if it’s given the proper backing by the authorities.
After winning the bronze, this column and youth and sport Permanent Secretary Agnes Musunga encouraged Muziyo to consider leaving the amateur ranks and turn professional if he had the ambition to fight at the highest level.
I argued, in a piece, “Will Muziyo Turn Pro After Games?”that nine years in the unpaid ranks was rather too long because the boxer was not getting any younger in a young man’s sport and that maybe time was ripe for Muziyo to make a career defining decision.
I cited Amir Khan, Floyd Mayweather Jr and Lennox Lewis as some of the marquee fighters who graduated from amateur to professional after excelling at the Games. Following his promotion, and assuming Muziyo felt like turning pro, the obvious question would be: to turn pro and lose his new job with its trappings, whatever they are, or keep his job and remain amateur?
During a Superior Milling -sponsored radio programme on Zambia National Broadcasting Cooperation (ZNBC) Radio Two early this year to hype up the March 15 double-header World Boxing Council title fights, Zambia Professional Boxing and Wrestling Control Board (ZPBWCB) Chairman, Nelson Sapi, raised the issue of whether amateur boxers in the armed services should lose their jobs when they decide to turn professional.
Sapi also spoke about efforts the ZPBWCB is making to change the current situation where amateur boxers from the armed forces lose their jobs if they decide to turn professional.
Currently, armed forces personnel who are allowed to turn professional without risking their jobs are footballers and a typical case is that of Zambia national soccer team captain, Christopher Katongo, who, we all know, once plied his trade in China. The Zambia army even promoted him after guiding his team to the first Africa Cup win in 2012.
On the programme, which co-featured Superior Milling managing director, Peter Cottan, Sapi argued that it was unfair to exclude amateur boxers from benefitting from their employment after they decided to turn professional like footballers do.
Noting that footballers like Katongo brought honour and respect to the employer, Zambia army and to the country at large, the parallel could be drawn for servicemen in amateur boxing who, if they excelled in the sport, like Muziyo, could similarly bring benefits to not only themselves, but their employers as well.
Sapi said his board was pursuing this matter with the ministry of youth and sport and had since written a letter to the minister Chishimba Kambwili and was awaiting a reply.
Amateur boxing is the foundation for professional boxing and, who knows, the next great champion could be lurking at Zambia Army or Zambia National Service, but cannot turn professional for fear of losing their job. There’s a danger in boxers staying too long in the amateur ranks.
The danger is that they may have too many fights which could leave them ‘washed out’ by the time they turned professional. Of course, a good amateur track record is necessary before one turns professional, but a situation where boxers remain amateur for life should not be encouraged.
The other point is that if we don’t allow service boxers to graduate from amateur to professional, we are somehow killing professional boxing because some of the amateurs are good enough to provide a reservoir for professionals.
I said then, and I reiterate now, the minister of sport should look into the matter of servicemen and women in amateur boxing to be allowed to join professional boxing without losing their jobs. I’m not sure about this, but I reckon if Muziyo entertained the thought of turning pro, would his dilemma not be ditching his promotion-too soon?
Comments: mwale.simon@yahoo.co.uk / 0966 755 574/0953744074