21 Jun 2015

The much-anticipated bout between Prisons’ Mmusi Tswiige and Lentswe Zwinila of Glen Valley in the weekend BoBA interclub boxing tournament never came to fruition since Tswiige was disqualified due to a hairy chin.

The two 69kg boxers’s encounter usually generate a lot of excitement and disqualifying Tswiige left a bitter taste in mouths of the spectators who had waited patiently for the duo’s meet.

The decision seemed not to only frustrate the boxing fans but also caused division among the officials. Prisons coach, Junior Moeti, expressed his disappointment over the decision and said he did not understand why that was not noticed during the weighing session.

“The beards are not visible and honestly I feel that the referees who were checking the boxers earlier should not have allowed the boxer to be weighed, and such decisions are frustrating." He said if they had done their job his boxer would not be disqualified.

Moeti said despite that they would also talk to the boxer and establish why he was not cleanly shaven as it was a rule known to all especially that Tswiige was a national team boxer. He said the findings will guide them whether to take action on him or not.

On his part the boxer said he was shocked by the decision as the checking referees did not complain about his beards. “Why are they talking about the hair now? Had they said this earlier I would have gone to smoothen my chin.”

He said that he has observed that he usually encounter problems when he has to fight with certain boxers. Tswiige said he did not want to be portrayed negatively as such was not good for his profile as a boxer.

The boxer said that he was prepared for the fight and is still waiting for the rematch.

Concerning the incident BoBA competitions manager Phetogo Tsheko said although the referee was within his powers, the decision was disappointing as such should have been picked at weighing session.

“Both the boxer and officials are to blame, as a national team boxer he should have known better and the officials too should never have weighed him.” Tsheko said those are the things that they will have to emphasize on, time and again to avoid such occurrences at major competitions.

Boxing fanatics were further disappointed when another interesting 60kg bout between national team and DTCB boxer Kabelo Bagwasi and Prisons’ Bashe Motlhane was cancelled the last minute.

Prisons coach said his boxer feared his opponent and decided not to fight. Contrary to the coach, Prisons manager Onalenna Mogotsakgotla said that they pulled Bashe’s blue book after learning that he will be facing Bagwasi not the opponent he was initially pitted against. She said when she enquired why his opponent was changed; she was told that the officials felt that Bashe is the one who can give Bagwasi a good challenge. “Are we here for training? This is competition not training.”

Concerning that the competitions manager said lately boxers and coaches select opponents and also prejudge bouts.

He said as officials they saw it fit for Kabelo to fight with Bashe, because they believe that Bashe is experienced. Tsheko said what transpired indicate lack of accountability by teams and said it’s not right.

The official said the two have fought a long time ago and didn’t understand why Prisons felt that it was a rematch.

Tsheko said the standard of boxing is going down, relatively because most of the coaches do not have time to prepare their boxers. He said most of their coaches’ skills are not to the required standard.

“Take army club coaches, they go on trips and when they do, they hand over to people who are not trained and such translate to poor performance,” said Tsheko. He said they are grateful that Healer Modiradilo is back in office as the Spots Development Officer and said they have planned on a couple of refresher courses to boost their officials.

The highlight of the day was the heavy weight bout (91kg) between Lesedi Bewlay of 1.2.5 and Maun’s Innocent Chombo, in which Chombo was declared winner. Chombo worked for his 3-0 victory as Bewlay also seemed determined to walk away with the title.

The two unleashed killer punches at each other until the last round, unlike the usual slow, lack of charisma heavy weight bouts, the duo’s own was fast and captivating to the end.

Francistown boxer Travolta Senna won against Thusoyaone Ditshoso of Kang by 3-0 in 64kg bout. In another 64kg encounter Atang Mosenke of Prisons avenged his mate disqualification by winning 3-0 against DTCB’s Theo Komotere. Prisons’ Eto Dibetso repeated his teammates’ winning feat by knocking out Lawrence Mathule of Botho in another 64kg affair. Omogolo Botshelong of Prisons defeated Kennedy Ramosese of SSKB by 3-0 in 49kg fight. Tshephang Babui of DTCB defeated Alphious Farmer of Thebephatshwa by a clear margin of 3-0 in 64 kg category. The award winning Oteng Oteng of UB proved his mettle by drubbing Prisons’ Gillian Ditshwene by 3-0 in another 60kg bout. ENDS