“The Black Hammer” (Zim) Dates “The Special One”...

“The Black Hammer” (Zim) Dates “The Special One” (Nam) For The Coveted WBA Africa Crown

Gilbert Munetsi

NDODANA Ncube (24), Zimbabwe’s top boxer in the super-featherweight division, will have his first shot at a continental title – the vacant World Boxing Association Africa championship - when he fights Namibia’s Flaim “The Special One” Nangolo on November 19.

Dubbed “The Prospect Series”, the bill is being promoted by Immanuel Moses of AC Promotions and will be hosted at the NamPower Convention Centre, Windhoek.

This will be the first time for Namibian Nangolo to fight a foreign boxer as he seeks to maintain an unbeaten run in a professional career that has won him seven fights with a single K.O.

Hailing from Hwange, the “Black Hammer” on the other hand boasts of a W8 (KO5)-L3-D0 record and has a Number One rating domestically. His three loses were all against boxers from outside the country’s borders; two Namibians (Sakaria Lukas and Jeremiah Nakathika) and a Zambian (Simon Ngoma).

For a boxer who started off building his record gradually but surely as then evidenced by the clean slate he managed to maintain in his first eight fights, it seemed his handlers suddenly decided to throw him into the deep end, making him dent his otherwise clean sheet three times consecutively.

He travels to Namibia with fellow countryman, Anele “The Wankie Brick” Bafana who will be taking part in a supporting bout.

Zimbabwe has been faring exceptionally well on the boxing side of sport, and a win by Ncube will add to other accolades that have come her way over the last couple of years.

In December 2020, Brendon “Boika” Denes defied the odds by defeating Mikka Shonena in his own backyard (Namibia) for the World Boxing Organisation welterweight Africa title. Around the same time, Peter “The Sniper” Pambeni did the same to bring home the WBO super-featherweight after having accounted for yet another Namibian, Albinius “Danny Boy” Felesianu.

Prior to the two achievements, it had historically proven a high mountain to climb for Zimbabwean boxers to pull a win on Namibian soil.

Clyde Musonda, Ncube’s manager, said they were aiming for nothing short of victory after which his Delta Force Academy would sit to map the way forward for the promising boxer.

“We are not throwing anything to chance, we have thoroughly prepared for this one and we entertain a lot of hope in the assignment. It is the vision of our academy to expose our boxers to national, regional, continental and, indeed, world titles and put our country on the boxing map,” he said.

Delta Force is home to Kudakwashe Chiwandire who is still riding on cloud nine after successfully defending her World Boxing Council interim super-bantamweight title last month.

Meanwhile, Chiedza “The Queen Tiger” Homakoma on November 17 returns to the ring for the third time this year in a non-title super-featherweight bout against Anisha “The Massacre” Basheel of Malawi.

The match is an undercard to an International Boxing Federation super welterweight title between Emmany “The General” Kalombo who is taking on India’s Shiva under the ESPN African Boxing series. The tournament has been penciled in for the Durban Casino.

No stranger to the external ring, Homakoma has fought seven boxers from out of Zimbabwe out of her 11 pro fights, winning the last one in September this year after having gotten the better of South Africa’s Kholosa Ndobayinini by points.

She, however, faces a tried and tested foe in Basheel. The Malawian is a former African Boxing Union, Commonwealth and WBC international champion who, ironically, earned her stripes under the management of Delta Force Academy, Zimbabwe.