Africa-Press – Tanzania. BOXING legend Habib Kinyogoli will train Ibrahim ‘Class’ Mgender ahead of his World Boxing Federation (WBF) lightweight international bout against Malawian Dennis Mwale early next year.
The international level boxing championship will be staged at the Next Door Arena in Masaki, Dar es Salaam on January 29th, 2021. The fight is being organised by Jackson Group Sport under the sanction of WBF and Tanzania professional boxing the governing body, TPBRC.
Kinyogoli was one of the top boxers during his golden age won the first silver medal for Tanzania in the All Africa Games of 1973.
He also featured in the Olympic Games as well as Commonwealth Games. Mgender said he has decided to start early preparations after recognising his opponent is tough and also targets the title belt.
He said that his training with Kinyogoli will be conducted at Amana gym in Ilala before later starting a residential training. The fight will be televised live by Azam Television, who is the event’s main sponsor.
He said since it is almost a month left before the fight, he must start early training. “I have decided to start training early to keep myself fit, my opponent is very strong and aims to win it.
I have started stamina exercise and later I will go for the technical aspect. Kinyogoli is the best trainer in the country and I believe he will take me where I want to be,” said Mgender. For his part, Jackson Group Sports CEO Kelvin Twissa said they have started preparations for the bout which will be the second event organized by his firm.
“We have started preparations for the bout and we are putting the venue in a more fashionable way,” said Twissa who also requested sponsors to support the bout.
He said the preparations for the fight are near completion, and the event will be spiced up with various undercard bouts featuring local and foreign boxers.
Twissa said the first of the supportive bouts will involve an upcoming female boxer, Stumai Muki, who will exchange blows with Revai Madongo of Zimbabwe in the flyweight category scheduled for six rounds. Another Tanzanian pugilist, Rayon Okwiri, will climb into the ring to fight Jimmy Mabundji from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in a middleweight bout slated for eight rounds.
Also in the schedule is Shaaban Hamadi Jongo who will exchange punches with Shawn Miller from the United States in a cruiserweight bout. Then another Tanzanian boxer, Nasibu Ramadhan, will slug it out with Nkosinathi Biyana of South Africa in a featherweight bout.
