KAMPALA (Xinhua) — Muzamir Kakande interrupts his boxing training session to answer a telephone call critical to his day to day life.
He is a fish monger and this is what he does for a living. He is also passionate about boxing. In fact, he is Africa’s boxing champion in the welter weight category.
He won gold at the Africa Boxing Championship held in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, last month.
Kakande is now gunning for gold when he represents the country at 2017 AIBA World Championships in Hamburg, Germany next month.
“I did not qualify by chance and I want to make sure I make another point to the world that there is a tough boxer in Uganda,” Kakande said.
He is now undergoing intense training in the capital Kampala.
“I have to try and concentrate on the training and also coordinate my fish trading business on phone,” the soft spoken boxer told Xinhua before heading back to the ring.
“I need to try and survive by doing the sport I love so much and also give the business time because it brings money,” he said.
Kakande buys fish in large quantities and vends it in Bwaise, a Kampala slum area.
“This business has kept me going because I can look after my family with this money from the business that I can’t get from boxing,” he said.
Sport is not a high paying industry in Uganda but players are never discouraged. They strive to beat the odds to enjoy whatever game.
David Kavuma, an official of the country’s boxing governing body, Uganda Boxing Federation, referred to Kakande as a hard working sports person.
“He has been fast improving in the last three years and it was no surprise seeing him win a gold medal in Congo Brazzaville last month,” Kavuma said.
Boxing has a long history in Uganda. Its leader in the 1970s, Idi Amin was a boxing champion when he was still a junior army officer in the British colonial army.
Since then the country has had many great boxers. John “The Beast” Mugabi, was a middleweight champion in the early 1980s, and Kassim Ouma was the country’s 2004 junior middleweight champion.
