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Charles Manyuchi

Sports Reporter
CHARLES Manyuchi returned home yesterday from his disappointing, if not controversial, adventure in Singapore where he lost his World Boxing Council welterweight silver title on Saturday.

Manyuchi went down to rising star Qudratillo Abduqaxorov in a match that lasted two minutes and 56 seconds. The top Zimbabwean boxer flew from Singapore to his training base in Zambia and drove back home yesterday.

However, he refused to comment on the fight. He said he was waiting for his manager, Chris Malunga, who is in Mexico for a title fight with another member of his stable Catherine Phiri.

Manyuchi’s defeat to Qudratillo has generated a lot of debate on what went wrong at the OCBC Arena on Saturday where he was knocked out in the first round. The Uzbek boxer capitalised on Manyuchi’s show-boating early in the match and sent him to the canvas twice to claim the WBC welterweight silver title.

The Zimbabwean boxer has been blamed for the manner in which he lost the fight, which shocked many, and some have even suggested the fight was fixed. Malunga on Monday refuted the suggestions circulating on social media and warned he will take legal action against anyone making those suggestions.

“Some of those comments are very negative and total rubbish, unacceptable and I have stated clearly that we are going to issue a comprehensive statement once we come back from Mexico. Right now we are still on tour of duty and we do not want to get involved in too much of this,” said Malunga.