Manyuchi was careless: Manager Charles Manyuchi

Sports Reporters
WITH debate still raging on what went wrong with Zimbabwe’s boxer Charles Manyuchi following the embarrassing first round defeat to rising star Qudratillo Abduqaxorov, his management team have also criticised the showboating which cost him the WBC welterweight silver title at the weekend.

Manyuchi’s manager Chris Malunga told the Singaporean media that the 27-year-old was “careless” in his approach.

The Uzbek boxer capitalised on Manyuchi’s clowning early in the match and sent him to the canvas twice to bag the match in just two minutes and 56 seconds.

“The technical approach was a bit bad on our side,” said Malunga.

“Charles was careless. That (the showboating) is his style of fighting, but I felt it was a bit early for him to do that.”

Manyuchi, whose record has now been dented to 20-3-1, will now need to go back and prepare for a possible rematch with the 23-year-old.

Malunga remained confident that Manyuchi will still rise.

But it is usually not easy to get a rematch and his Zambian stable Oriental Quarries Boxing Promotions would need to make an aggressive bid against the Uzbek.

Abduqaxorov’s camp has since indicated that he will defend his title against Russian Dmitry Mikhylenko, the man who was defeated by Manyuchi last year for the belt.

It may take time before Manyuchi gets another shot. However, Malunga said they have not given up on their dream as they were still eyeing the gold title.

Malunga said the knockout should spur Manyuchi to work harder on his shortcomings.

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“Good boxers have taken such knockout (defeats) and come back. So it’s a learning process for us,” he said.

Malunga, who is now heading to Mexico for a title fight with another member of his stable Esther Phiri, also dismissed stories circulating on social media that the match might have been fixed.

“With due respect to everyone’s comments, let’s be very careful. I am appealing to everybody on the group that let’s be very careful with the comments we are making.

“Some of these 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.

“What we are looking for is to make sure that we defend the other title in Mexico.

“So all those comments which are coming up are very dangerous to the sport and certain individuals might end answering charges in courts of law because those are serious allegations, so let’s be very careful with our comments.

“I know that everyone is at liberty to comment the way they comment but certain comments are very false and alarming,” said Malunga.

But many in the boxing fraternity have raised concerns over Manyuchi’s showboating and clowning approach in his fight.

The way Manyuchi lost disappointed many of his fans and colleagues.

Boxing trainer, Issa Phiri of Hard Rock, said Manyuchi’s approach to the fight was unprofessional.

“The way Charles performed, I don’t think they did a lot of work as a camp to come up with a game plan towards the fight. I didn’t see the team work, I didn’t see what the camp did to help Charles to come up with a good approach.

“The approach in the first round was not very professional.

“I thought maybe they just felt since this young man is just new into the line, they can just take him easily. That’s why, the way I looked at the video, how Charles performed, he was just Charles without the corner man who told him what to do and he was not on guard.

“He was not serious. He performed as an amateur and he performed as someone who is at home I don’t know why?” said Phiri.

However, Phiri is convinced Manyuchi, given another chance, will bounce back.

Former Zimbabwe National Boxing Control Board member, Patrick Mkondiwa, who is also a referee, said Manyuchi was responsible for his defeat.

“First of all we are all disappointed. We were not really expecting this although in boxing a boxer can lose.

“The problem with this bout is our boy did not protect himself.

“From a referee’s perspective, we always tell them to protect themselves. It may be his style of fighting but it has cost him now. He is a good boxer but the problem is the guard,” said Mkondiwa.

Mkondiwa pointed out that although it’s not a pleasant experience, the loss is a good lesson for Zimbabwe’s top boxer.

“I was disappointed but it’s a good lesson, although it cost him his belt. Hopefully he comes back strong.

“Because he removed the guard, he was caught unaware and off guard.

“When he fell, what he should have done was to wait until the referee counted to eight. He was still dizzy and the other boxer went for a straight follow-up before he had recovered,” said Mkondiwa.

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