Manyuchi gives back to Zambia with K20,000 academy pledge

Former World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver champion Charles Manyuchi has pledged K20,000 towards the establishment of the Nelson Sapi Boxing Academy in Lusaka, in tribute to the late Zambian administrator who played a major role in his rise to international prominence.

Manyuchi said he would contribute K10,000 to the academy and a further K10,000 personally to project coordinator Christopher Malunga, whom he credited with helping shape his career.

“I will never forget what you did for me and how you changed my life. You helped make me who I am today. Some people forget where they come from, but I will always remember your kindness and the many lives you have touched,” Manyuchi said in his message.

The pledge comes as Malunga and Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotions push ahead with plans to convert a section of a National Sports Council of Zambia building into a boxing gym and academy.

According to Malunga, the facility, which is expected to benefit from a financial injection of K300,000, will serve young people from surrounding Lusaka communities, including East Park, and combine boxing training with educational support for selected athletes.

The academy is named after Nelson Sapi, the late Zambian boxing administrator whose influence extended across the continent and into international boxing governance.

Sapi served as chairman of Zambia’s Professional Boxing and Wrestling Board of Control and as general secretary of the African Boxing Union. He was also a member of the World Boxing Council’s Board of Governors, placing him among the most influential African figures in the sport during his era.

His tenure coincided with a productive period for Zambian boxing, including the rise of fighters associated with Oriental Quarries. Among them was Manyuchi, who built much of his professional career in Zambia under the OQBP banner, winning the African Boxing Union title before going on to claim WBC International and WBC Silver titles.

Sapi died in February 2019. The WBC described him as someone who “always served this sport in the very best of ways” while mourning his passing alongside the African boxing community.

Malunga said in an interview that the Nelson Sapi Boxing Academy would accommodate no more than 15 leading boxers, with a deliberate focus on developing fighters who are also committed to education.

He said athletes who are out of school would be supported to return to the classroom, while those already in school could receive scholarship assistance. The initiative is also intended to preserve boxing history, with plans for a museum-style section honouring contributors to the sport during Sapi’s administration.

“Nelson Sapi was a very great man. That is why I chose his name for this academy,” Malunga said.

The project is being driven by Malunga and supported by Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotions, the Zambian stable with which Manyuchi was long associated. Malunga said fundraising was already under way, with early contributions bringing the total to about K91,000 before Manyuchi’s pledge.

Manyuchi’s contribution is both financial and symbolic. It links one of Zimbabwe’s most successful boxers with the Zambian administrator and boxing environment that helped provide the platform for his international career.

For Malunga, the pledge is also an endorsement of the academy’s broader mission: to create opportunities for young people through sport, discipline and education while honouring the people who laid the foundations of African boxing.

“Keep doing the good work. And may God bless you abundantly,” Manyuchi told Malunga.