The sixth edition of Africa Cup of Nations boxing tournament will be staged in Yaounde, Cameroon in June next year.
Announcing this today, Africa Boxing Confederation (AFBC) Secretary-General Andre Basile Kalong said the sixth edition of the Africa Cup was discussed and approved by the Board of Directors at their meeting in Maputo.
“We unanimously agreed Yaounde, the headquarters of AFBC will host the Africa Cup of Nations tournament next year, ” said Kalong.
“Africa Cup of Nations is in line with our plans to stage as many tournaments as possible to ensure our boxers are kept busy as well as improving our boxing standards.”
The fifth edition of the Africa Cup was held in East London, South Africa in 2014. Algeria emerged overall winners with five gold medals followed by hosts South Africa with four gold medals.
Algeria’s Mohamed Flissi was declared the Best Boxer following his superb performance in which he outpointed his main rival, Morocco’s 2012 Olympian Abdelali Daraa, in the semis and stopped Lesotho’s Moroke Mokhoto in the final flyweight bout. The previous year, Flissi won a silver medal at light-flyweight in the world championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. That was Africa’s first medal in the world boxing championships since 2005 when Egypt’s middleweight Mohammed Hikal won bronze in Mianyang, China.
In addition to the Africa Cup of Nations, Kalong said other tournaments planned for next year are Africa Elite Youth Championships and Zonal tournaments.
Kalong said plans are at an advanced stage for Adidas to team up with AFBC in the development of boxing in Africa.
“Adidas will support us financially and materially, we’re committed to take Africa boxing to the next level,” said Kalong, adding: “There’s more good news coming to Africa from IBA. Watch this space.”
In addition to the aforementioned, the International Boxing Association (IBA) has awarded Africa two major tournaments set for next year, World Women’s Championships and the newly-introduced World Boxing Tour.
Credit: Nenez Media Services.
