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Tadious Manyepo

Sports Reporter

TOP female Zimbabwean boxer Kudakwashe “Take Money” Chiwandire will have at most two days to acclimatise in Mexico before she gets into the ring for the World Boxing Council (WBC) title after her team encountered travel hiccups.

The 27-year-old is scheduled to challenge for the WBC super-bantamweight belt against Mexican Yamileth Mercado in Chihuahua on Saturday.

She has already left the country accompanied by her trainer/manager Clyde Musonda, Deltaforce marketing officer Eric Kandiwa as well as two assistant trainers Tarisai Ponde and Simon Madanhire with the quintet holed up in Pretoria, South Africa.

They were expected to leave South Africa for Paris, France, yesterday but it emerged late yesterday that the Mexican consulate in Pretoria had requested for additional documents to accompany their visa applications, resulting in their delay.

The documents were yet to be sent from Mexico by late yesterday but Kandiwa expressed confidence the visas will be ready by today to enable them to travel to the South American country.

The logistical mix-up is, however, seen as a plot from the Mercado camp to frustrate Chiwandire and probably win the mental battle before the physical one.

Ideally, Chiwandire should be in Mexico by now to get used to the weather conditions and collect herself before the biggest fight to be entered by a Zimbabwean ever.

Should Chiwandire leave today, she will only arrive in Mexico late tomorrow, meaning she will only have Friday to rest and focus for the fight on Saturday night.

In any case, she will not have a full day to rest as she will have to go for the mandatory weigh-in with her weight even in jeopardy due to the prolonged time she will take flying to Chihuahua.

Unless her camp successfully applies for a postponement, Chiwandire is sure to enter the ring with both mental and physical fatigue given she will spend at most 35 hours travelling to Mexico.

Kandiwa yesterday said the team was still in South Africa.

“We are still holed up in Pretoria, South Africa, where we are waiting on the Mexican Consulate to issue us with the travel visas.

“There are a few documents that are en-route from Mexico that the Consulate requested to be resend,” said Kandiwa.

“Once those are secured, we are confident we will get the visas tomorrow (today). That’s where we are at the moment but we keep our fingers crossed.”

It is especially disappointing for the Zimbabwean camp who hosted another Mexican, Zulina Munoz, in October last year.

Chiwandire beat Munoz on points to retain her WBC interim title last year but her opponent didn’t encounter any logistical problems. She was in the country for close to a week before she battled it out against Chiwandire with the Zimbabwean emerging victorious to earn the right to challenge for the gold title against Mercado.

Chiwandire is unperturbed with the negative developments though.

“These things are expected and I am not worried that much. Of course, I would have wanted to be in Mexico for at least four days for acclimatisation but these things do happen.

“I cannot lose my focus just because we have encountered some travel hiccups. I will keep my concentration levels up there and try to win the fight under what may come,” said Chiwandire.

“It’s very disappointing, of course. You see these are international titles. This is the biggest fight ever by a Zimbabwean and you expect everything to be smooth sailing but well here we are. I am not going to waste my time thinking about the disappointments. The prize matters more than anything else at this juncture.

“We have been working very hard since November last year preparing for this fight and we can’t just lose it mentally today. We have to go all out in attack under any conditions. We have to be mentally strong, we will overcome whatever is thrown at us.”

Chiwandire will become the first Zimbabwean boxer to fight for the WBC gold title.

She earned the right to challenge Mercado after defeating another Mexican Munoz in a tight contest at the Harare International Conference Centre last year.

Mercado has successfully defended the WBC title for four times since 2019 and Chiwandire will be out to break that dominance. Meanwhile, Zororo Phumulani, which is powered by Doves Zimbabwe, hosted Chiwandire’s team in Pretoria yesterday.

The funeral services company, which has supported Chiwandire since her first WBC interim fight against Zambian Catherine Phiri early last year, pledged to reward the pugilist should she be victorious on Saturday.

The send-off ceremony was graced by former Warriors captain and arguably Zimbabwe’s greatest footballer of all time — Peter Ndlovu.