THIS week’s piece should have been a preview of the interim Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) World welterweight title fight pitting come backing Esther Phiri and South Africa’s Sandra Almeida, but at this writing, it wasn’t clear the fight would happen today.
And although the prime reason for the apparent failure is easy to guess- a lack of funds- which appears to affect individual promoters more than corporate sponsors, why has the situation remained static when there are many corporate bodies in the country?
My thoughts went beyond our borders and I was reminded about the boxing scene in South Africa where they have at least two main boxing promoters, both corporate. They are Golden Gloves (Rodney Berman) and Eyethu (Mzi Mnguni) who enjoy the lion’s share of boxing promotions.
Golden Gloves and Eyethu are contracted to pay-channel Super Sport, while the third promoter less well known here is Milenkovic, who has traditionally worked with the SABC.
Avid fans and even casual observers of Zambia’s boxing scene may recall a time not too long ago when the name National Milling Corporation became synonymous with Exodus Boxing Promotions and Esther Phiri’s fights, which the company bankrolled.
Then Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotions came on board to offer some sort of competition in terms of promotions. At that time, the purses for Exodus Promotions were, by comparison, higher than Oriental Quarries.’
I’m not, in this piece, debating why one often appeared to be higher than the other, but the point is, we had two corporate sponsors who made it possible for boxers to avoid inactivity.
Over the last couple of years, Oriental have monopolized sponsorship with virtually no major competitor like National Milling.
The question is, when are we going to have another corporate sponsor to break the monopoly of Oriental? Mind you, we have four or five other boxing stables run by individuals in Zambia, but as experience has shown, individuals do not and cannot have the wherewithal which is the exclusive preserve of companies like Oriental or National Milling at their command.
As Boxing South Africa (BSA) director of operations Loyiso Mtya once observed, the lack of fight time for boxers derails the growth and development of professional boxing.
“Inaction remains a challenge. That is because of a lack of funds and the small number of licensed female boxers in the country,” said Mtya. He said women were dragging their feet in
“taking up boxing as a career, and producing only two world champions bears testimony to that,” There were scores of female boxers training in all the country’s gyms, but only for fitness purposes, he said.
Only 39 female boxers were registered with BSA, the majority of whom came from Limpopo. There were none from Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.
But boxing badly needs corporate sponsors so that, in Zambia’s case, we can have more Esthers, Catherine Phiris, Alfred Muwowos to name but a few.
The problem of street kids is well documented and boxing can help keep them off the streets or being caught up in the seedy side of township life. This is why it is important for corporate sponsors to take in children as young as 10 years old – to keep them off the streets.
Since companies are endowed with more resources, it is important that they encourage young men and women to make a career out of boxing, through sponsorship. They should, however, be mindful that life in the sport is too short to sustain any boxer financially after retirement, which is why they should insist on their charges attending school as well.
For professionals like Esther,Catherine and Mwenya Musenge’s Joyce Chileshe, among others continued sponsorship by corporate companies can only result in soaring career progression.
Need one overemphasise the need for more corporate sponsorship? Comments: mwale.simon@yahoo.co.uk or 096755574/0953744074