When seven African boxers punched their way to the finals of the just concluded Commonwealth Games, there were high hopes of a rich harvest of gold medals.
Instead, they all settled for silver, to the chagrin of ardent boxing followers on the continent.
What really happened in Birmingham? Is it that the African boxers are technically below par compared to their European opponents?
Boxing is essentially a game of addition and subtraction; the art of hitting and not being hit.
Boxing analysts wonder do the African boxers lose their concentration in the ring opting to rely on their raw power to handle their opponents?
That seven of them pounded their way to the finals negates the aforementioned because they didn’t make it on walkovers. They won their bouts decisively.
One of the seven African finalists, Ghana’s featherweight Joseph Commey, did not even enter the ring after he failed medical check-up.
So, why didn’t the other six finalists rise to the occasion? Can we say they lost fair and square to technically superior opponents—and is there something lacking in the African boxers?
Lethabo Modukanele (pictured), Botswana’s first female boxer to win a medal in the Commonwealth Games, has her own opinion on why African boxers in the finals were all beaten.
“The African boxing style is unique to Africa, and so is every other region’s style,” said Modukanele.
“In Africa, mostly East, West and below, our fighting style is based mainly on hitting hard. We are trained to have long lasting engines—stamina, so we tend to engage in fast-paced wars, and we look for constant engagement.
“That fighting style is detrimental to our success when we face European and mostly Asian and Arab fighters. Those fighters have finesse, they have superb punch selection and their footwork is very good. Most of the African fighters rely on pressure fighting, which works to a certain extent.
“I also believe with the knowledge that those other fighters have, those skills coupled with the biased judging and refereeing, we go in already having doubts about our chances of winning.”
Modukanele lost her semi-final minimumweight bout to England’s Demi-Jade Resztan on points, 0-5.
“My fight with the English girl was a case of the above mentioned. I started off well, having what I believed was the upper hand but then I got dragged into a fire fight after receiving a count in the first round for slipping of all things, and that worsened my game plan. I felt the count was unnecessary because she didn’t hit me with any punch.
“I went into the second round trying to recover, to balance the loss out with the intention of also winning the last and so the strategy for that was to apply more pressure, to attack incessantly but that only helped the English girl outscore me in the process.
“I got sloppy trying to apply the pressure and that allowed her to capitalize on my mistakes. I felt so disappointed, I had no choice but to accept the loss.”
Modukanele, who celebrates her 26th birthday on August 25, has put behind that disappointment, and is now focused on excelling in the Africa Boxing Confederation tournament next month in Maputo.
–Nene
