Africa’s undisputed flyweight king, Patrick Chinyemba of Zambia, is psyched up for the golden opportunity he has been waiting for to avenge the highly unpopular defeat he suffered to India’s Amit Panghal in the semi-finals of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
Chinyemba, one of the six African boxers in today’s Paris Olympics boxing Day 4 action, has been pitted against Panghal in the pre-quarters. Both received byes to the round of 16.
“The world watched how the judges denied me a very clean victory, and I’m ready to prove them wrong today,” said the 23-year-old soldier with the Zambia Defence Forces.
It’s a battle of the soldiers as the 28-year-old southpaw Panghal is an Indian Army Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO).
Both are also some of the most decorated boxers in their respective countries. Chinyemba won flyweight gold medals at the 2022 Africa Elite Championships, last year’s Africa Olympic qualifiers and this year’s African Games while some of Panghal’s accolades include winning gold in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, silver in the 2018 Commonwealth Games and becoming India’s first ever male boxer to win world championships silver medal in 2019.
In the controversial Birmingham Commonwealth Games semi-finals bout, the two equally skillful boxers entertained the packed house with non-stop action particularly in the third round when Chinyemba, aware that Panghal had won the second round with the Zambian taking the first one, unleashed a relentless two-fisted flurry to the seemingly out of gas Panghal that when the Indian boxer was declared the winner most fans and even the TV commentators were shocked. They said that was Chinyemba’s fight.
Kennedy Kanyanta, Zambia’s 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, who was the assistant coach to Wisdom Mudenda, appealed to the International Boxing Association (IBA) to discipline the judges involved in what he described as the most unpopular decision he had witnessed in boxing.
“Such judges are not only demoralizing and destroying the careers of innocent boxers but also putting the sport into disrepute and soiling IBA’s image,” said a furious Kanyanta.
All that is now water under the bridge, and a lot has happened between the two boxers who must have also sharpened their skills which they will display today at the North Paris Arena.
Chinyemba is a ring artist as well as an entertainer if the need arises. He’s a good counter puncher and can as well carry the fight to the opponent. However, he will have to be economical and more accurate with his punches to avoid hitting Panghal’s guard like he at times did in their first fight. That was a waste of energy. If he manages to have more work rate than Panghal, and punch where it matters most he will carry the day and bring joy to the gloomy faces of African boxing fans following the eight defeats so far from the 23 boxers who were registered for the Paris Games on arrival.
African boxers have won only two bouts in Paris. The winners – all Mozambicans – are welterweight Alcinda Dos Santos who’s a two-time Africa champion and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Tiago Muxanga. Both are in the pre-quarters having won their first fights.
Besides Chinyemba’s fight, in other round of 16 bouts featuring African boxers, Morocco’s Africa bantamweight queen Widad Bertal meets 2023 world championships bronze medallist Jutamas Jitpong from Thailand, Cape Verde’s 2022 Africa championships bronze medallist David Pina squares it out with Thailand’s Thitisan Panmod at flyweight and Egypt’s 2019 African Games light-heavyweight gold medallist Abdelrahman Orabi – featuring in his third Olympics – battles it out with last year’s European Games bronze medallist, Azerbaijan’s Murad Allaverdiyev.
In the round of 32 bouts, DR Congo’s Africa featherweight champion and the face of female boxing in the Central African country, Marcelat Sakobi aka Mwasi Kitoko, will trade leather against Uzbekistan’s 2021 Asian champion Sitora Turdibekova while charming Mali’s 2019 African Games featherweight silver medallist, Fatoumata Camara, meets Turkey’s Esra Yildiz who is a bronze medallist in the 2020 European Olympic Qualification Tournament.
It’s one of those days the most famous female Mali boxer, born and bread in Paris, has been waiting for: fighting in front of her parents, siblings and close friends she grew up with on the suburbs of Paris.This is a fight Fatou will use every trick in the book to emerge victorious.
We wish all the African boxers good luck. The rain may have started pounding but it doesn’t mean it will rain daily.
Credit: AFBC Communications
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