Zimpapers Logo

Gilbert Munetsi Sports Correspondent
THE dispute of who is the better boxer between Peter “Sniper” Pambeni and Philip “Cobra” Musariri will now be settled in a grandeur boxing ‘court’ with a broader jury that includes millions of viewers of the live broadcast match as the two slug it out for the vacant Zimbabwe super lightweight title on August 31.

Theirs is the latest addition to a rich fight card of a tournament dubbed “A Fistful of Dollars” which is being promoted by Kalakoda and bankrolled by Kwese TV under their regular Friday Fight Night series.

It fulfils the wish by the SA-based promotions company to give back to domestic boxing by ensuring that vacant titles are gradually filled in, an endeavour that began with the women’s lightweight championship won by Chiedza Hombakomba against Monalisa Sibanda on July 13.

Today, the Zimbabwe National Boxing Control Board tasks an independent panel to analyse video footage of a match fought by the two boxers (Pambeni and Musariri) at Raylton Sports Club on August 5, in which the handlers of the latter felt they had been robbed of what appeared to be a clear victory by their boxer.

Stalin Mau Mau, Pambeni’s manager has probably pre-empted the outcome of the findings of the panel, admitting on social media that his boxer was indeed “outclassed.”

“Cobra outclassed Pambeni, that’s it. I manage Pambeni and if he had won that fight I was not going to be happy . . . I have never fixed a fight in favour of my boxer because doing so means you are destroying him.

“It’s not beneficial to the manager, boxer or the sport,” posted Mau Mau in response to an outcry by participants to a boxing group following the controversial scorecard.

Whatever the neutral verdict the panel comes up with, either boxer has been offered a new lease of life upon which to prove he is the country’s top pugilist in this division that boasted of yesteryear champions of the likes of Ambrose Mlilo and Mordicai Donga, among many others. It is the honours to be the country’s face in the division that will propel either fighter to give their best shot on a night that is punctuated with several other decorations — WBF titles — for succeeding boxers on whom the boxing gods would have smiled.

Armed with a fight record of W11 (KO2)-L3-D1, 29-year-old Pambeni comes into the fight the better baked in terms of both experience and exposure. He has made attempts at the International Boxing Federation Africa belt at featherweight which he lost to Abdul Tebazalwa in Kampala more than a decade ago.

He also had a shot at the World Boxing Association Pan African bantamweight title, but also lost to Bongani Mahlangu of SA.

Casualties to his venomous fist include Zambia’s Charles Kauseni, Siegfried Kaperu and Junius Amunyela (both of Namibia). He has so far lost only once to Davies Mafara at home in Zimbabwe.

After a sabbatical from the sport that butters his bread, Sniper however, bounced back a recharged boxer, scoring successive victories against once highly-rated Ishmael Kuchocha and Zambia’s Sam Ngoma.

Cobra, on the other hand, has been on a spit and biting spree that has left a couple of victims nursing his ‘bites’. Blessing Master Kachigwada was the first to fall in Musariri’s pro-debut at the HICC last year and on April 29, the Army School of Sport and Physical Training graduate, shocked Malawian Mudi Kuminga at home at the M1 Centre Point in Lilongwe, through a 3rd round KO.

He boasts of 33 wins and no lose in a long amateur reign, and has won three professional fights and lost one away in Zambia to Lemmy Simbeye in an international friendly bout on New Year ’s Eve. The Sniper v Cobra bout is a fixture any bookmaker would not find easy foretelling as it contains all the makings of a shocker.