It will be fire for fire and a tooth for a tooth in one of the highly anticipated fights in this year’s Africa Elite Championships in Kinshasa.
Their third encounter in Addis Ababa ended acrimoniously with DR Congo’s African Games light-heavyweight champion Pita Kabeji blasting the judges for giving the fight to Changalawe on a silver platter.
“He didn’t win the fight, I’m very surprised how the judges officiated,” said Kabeji in his dressing room at Adwa Museum in Addis Ababa on August 17 this year.
Kabeji was calmly furious after the gruelling bout in the first ever IBA Champions Night card staged on African soil.
“Look at me I’ve no injuries but Changalawe’s face is swollen from the punishment I handed him,” said Kabeji, twice gold medallist in the Africa Elite Championships.
“I’m waiting for him in Kinshasa, I will beat him proper infront of my home fans.”
In the Addis Ababa fight, Kabeji shook Changalawe severally with his heavy bolo punch but Kabeji watered it down describing the punch as a foul blow.
“He was just butting, that’s why he was warned by the referee, he didn’t hurt me as he claims,” said Changalawe, a bronze medallist in the 2022 Commonwealth Games and last year’s Africa Elite Championships in Yaounde.
Today, September 12, Changalawe said he’s in serious training looking ahead to their fourth fight in Kinshasa.
“I’m reminding Kabeji I have a new punch that will choke him,” roared a defiant Changalawe from Dar es Salaam.
“He will not see it coming because it’s a flashing painful blow, I’m working on it now, he will cry at home like a baby.”
The two boxers have now met thrice with Kabeji winning twice and Changalawe once.
Depending on the outcome of the draw, there’s a high possibilty of a fourth fight in Kinshasa as fans brace up to shake a leg in the Big Party to be spiced by the throbbing beats of DR Congo’s world renowned musicians who’ll be all out to entertain fans and let them know they’re in Africa’s music capital.
Boxers from over 30 African countries are expected in Kinshasa to trade leather in Africa’s oldest boxing tournament first held in 1962 in Cairo with hosts Egypt and Ghana winning four gold medals each in the finals.
Credit: Nenez Media Services
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