15 Oct 2017

The Botswana Boxing Association (BoBA) inter-club tournament hosted by Glen Valley Boxing Club attracted a disappointing number of boxers on Saturday. Despite being nearly marred by a low turnout, the few boxers who pitched up put a performance much to the delight of the small crowd that crammed into the Glen Valley multi purpose hall.

The toast of the day was a fierce encounter between University of Botswana boxer, Kefentse Molalapata and Nlisi Kgakgamatso of DTCB Boxing Club.

Pride was at stake the moment the two boxers stepped into the ring as they were meeting for the first time in their career. Kgakgamatso fought in an unfamiliar 60kg category ditching his usual 56kg.

The 2015 BISA gold medalist Kgakgamatso looked a bit nervous in the opening round and thus allowed Molalapata to throw powerful jabs from a distance, which he nevertheless dealt with excellently.

However, the youngster dusted himself up in the last round and kept Molalapata, who was running out of steam, at the end of his right hooks and the points decision from the four judges went in his favour. In other exciting matches, Lentswe Zwinila of 1.2.5 Boxing Club narrowly beat SSKB’s Tshepo Stoffel after a judge’s split decision.

Crowd favourite and Africa Youth Games champion, Mohamed Otukile had a tough fight against Khumoyame Basupeng from Ghanzi. Exciting ladies 52kg boxer, Beauty Phori of UB continued her impressive run when she beat Rose Monna of Glen Valley 2-1. Kabelo Seitshiro of SSKB got a rude awakening when Thabang Methikga from Lobatse beat him 3-0.

Atang Mosenke of Prisons repeated the same scoreline when he faced SSKB’s Ronald Motswakae. His teammate Gillian Ditshupo beat Tshepiso Mojathose of Ghanzi 3-0. BoBA spokesperson Taolo Tlouetsile explained on the sidelines of the matches that the tournament was the penultimate one before the association wraps up the calendar for the year. Ends