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DECISION MAKERS . . . Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotions manager Chris Malunga (right) stresses a point during a Press conference yesterday in the presence of acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Sport and Recreation Martin Dube

Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
CHARLES Manyuchi’s World Boxing Council welterweight silver title defence against France’s Damien Martin has been rescheduled to next month as the promoters have other engagements which could compromise their preparations for the mega bout.

The fight was initially set for September 30 at the Harare International Conference Centre, but is now scheduled for October 14 at the same venue.

Manyuchi’s manager Chris Malunga confirmed the development yesterday at the Ministry of Sport and Recreation offices in Harare.

“Charles Manyuchi’s fight was supposed to take place on the 30th of September and we are coming from a WBC gold title fight for Catherine Phiri where she defended the title,” said Malunga.

“Nestle picked Catherine Phiri to become one of the brand ambassadors for Nestle and I had to travel almost immediately after the fight to Cape Town.

“That took us almost a week and immediately after she won the Vice President of Zambia invited us for lunch and that also took almost close to a week.

“Then, secondly, we had to look at a partner. We had to come up with a partner whom we can work with in terms of somebody who understands the marketing aspect of the fight.

“And somebody who understands, who has handled international events before and I had to screen a lot of people. I had put one week of screening, but because of that delay we went into the second week and that means the two weeks of the fight were swallowed.”

Malunga revealed they engaged the services of Hugo Moore event managers to market the fight.

“The new partner we picked, we came up with is Hugo Moore event managers. They are going to work with Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotion to make sure that we put up a very good boxing promotion.

“A promotion, which is going to make a mark and a promotion which is going to motivate a lot of young boys and girls to take the sport very serious.

“Their role will be to market the fight and also when you are in a foreign market you need to have a local person to tell you, to identify also companies which we can approach in terms of sponsoring this. We are also looking at making sure that we work with more Zimbabwean people in terms of this event management.

“Charles Manyuchi will defend his title here. This is a new date, he will defend the title,” said Malunga.

The main supporting bout for the day will be the female WBC title fight between Lolita Muzeya of Oriental Quarries and Agnes Muti Maukanena of Malawi.

The budget for the match is $172 000 and Malunga is confident they will meet their target to stage a successful event.

“Working with Hugo Moore, we will make sure that the resources are raised for this very important fight. What we need only is a political will, the Government does not give money anyhow.

“But the Government, once it speaks, we know our marketing strategy will raise the resources,” said Malunga.

Acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Sport and Recreation, Martin Dube, said they had to engage the promoters as they were worried about the preparations for the fight.

“As Zimbabweans, we were concerned actually that not much was happening in the preparation for this fight. So we had to contact the promoter because we were looking forward to the fight on the 30th.

“But when he explained the reasons why he needs two weeks we bought into it and I am sure Zimbabweans will still come in their numbers to support the fight on the 14th,” said Dube.

In other bouts lined up for the day, Zimbabwe’s Anyway Katunga will be on the roster as he dates Alfred Muwowo of Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotions in a non-title flyweight fight.

Kudakwashe Chiwandire dates Zambian Barbra Banda in a non-title flyweight bout.

Gibon Kamota from Oriental Quarries takes on another Zimbabwean boxer, Tinashe Mwadziwana, in a non-title bantamweight match.