Pambeni succumbs to defeat in biggest upset of his...

Pambeni succumbs to defeat in biggest upset of his career

Gilbert Munetsi

In what can best qualify as one of the biggest boxing upsets of the decade, Peter "The Sniper" Pambeni was Saturday night defeated in the very first of a 12 -round contest to award to his Namibian opponent the World Boxing Association Pan African junior lightweight championship.

The match ended in 1:53s of Round 1, and a TKO verdict was all Flame Nangolo needed to be crowned the new champion of the continent under the WBA banner.

A wild punch that missed it's target exposed Pambeni to Nangolo, who capitalized on the error and delivered a liver punch that sapped the air from the Zimbabwean, forcing him to go down on his knees and failing to beat the count.

Saturday's defeat was Pambeni's shortest-lived in a colourful career during which he has been crowned national flyweight champion at only 15, bantamweight king and, subsequently, a World Boxing Organisation Africa champion.

He went into the fight against Nangolo at the Roman Catholic Centre in Windhoek with the stakes in his favour, but it could not be.

Had he emerged victorious, he would have become the second Zimbabwean to land a WBA title after former heavyweight champion Tamsanqa Dube, and the victory would certainly have opened many doors for a potential international title.

The boxing fraternity, privy to Pambeni's abilities, woke up in shock as it had anticipated celebrations upon Sniper's touchdown in Harare. But fate had other plans.

Thomas "The Doctor" Kambuyi discovered Pambeni at only eight years of age, trained and nurtured him from the amateur ranks to stardom. He was in the former champion's corner on Saturday and after fate had been sealed, was at a loss for words.

"I'm devasty, I'm not well. We put everything towards this fight and the result doesn't reflect the amount of effort put up.

"I will continue to apologize to everyone. Team Shumba (which manages Pambeni) failed to calculate.

"Nangolo had 1000% support and fighting at home gave him an edge over Sniper, but we never expected the outcome.

"I had personally shared to Peter that his career was getting to it's twilight and as such this opportunity was his best chance to show the world that, indeed, he was still around but it was never to be.

"I have been with him since he was 8 years old. He turned pro in 2002 and became the youngest professional boxer crowned a national fly weight champion at 15 and now he is 38.

"This being his 18th year as a professional boxer, we need to give him a round of applause for staying afloat for such long. His management should be in a better position to map the way forward for him going forward, but I still believe he will bounce back wiser.

"I understand the emotions because the result has not been so palatable. And it's also not easy to be sanctioned by such a big organisation as the WBA, meaning Peter earned this challenge for the vacant title because of consistency and boxrec qualification.

"But as they say, in sport you win some and lose some," Kambuyi said in a post match comment.

Pambeni's loss and manner in which he succumbed to defeat is not unique to boxing contests.

While at the peak of his career, former WBC silver champion Charles Manyuchi lost in the same fashion to challenger Quadrittilo in Singapore, this after he had chartered and conquered in more difficult terrains of Italy and Russia.

Internationally, Mike Tyson was known to knock out opponents in seconds, sometimes when people were still queuing to get entry into the venue.

*Sponsorship to cover this event has been provided by Asuertec*