Carlos Kambaekwa
28 June 2011
Windhoek — Namibia’s boxing supremo, Kelly Ngixulifwya, has cautioned boxing promoters against boxers’ burnout in the aftermath of Vikapita “Beast Master’ Meroro’s failure to wrestle the World Boxing Organization (WBO) Africa title away from holder Braimah Kamako.
Meroro suffered his second defeat in succession when he failed to reclaim his belt against the unbeaten Ghanaian champion Kamako, who despatched the Namibian on points at the Sports Centre in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on Saturday.
This follows short on the heels of another defeat when Meroro was given a thorough hiding by Isaac Chilemba during his fight for the prestigious World Boxing Association (WBA) Pan-African Light Heavyweight title in Johannesburg, earlier this year.
“After that loss, his (Meroro) confidence went low and the boy needed a couple of fights against lesser opponents to regain his confidence and self-belief before he could take on the big guns,” said Ngixulifwya.
“It was a big mistake to let him fight against somebody of the calibre of Kamako within such a short space of time after his bad loss against Chilemba, whom I think is an average boxer anyway. The ultimate objective should not be about winning titles – we should nurture our boxers gradually and give them time to recover sufficiently after suffering heavy defeats in their previous bouts.”
Ngixulifwya pulled no punches and strongly believes Meroro was thrown into the lion’s den against the unbeaten Kamako in his own backyard. “Look at Jatoorora ‘the Sting’ Tjingaveta – he lost his WBO Africa Lightweight belt against compatriot Martin Haikali.”
He said as custodians of boxing in the country, it’s their duty to advise boxing promoters on certain issues that affect the progress of boxers but they can not oblige or dictate to promoters about their preferred opponents for their boxers.
“There was no sufficient recovery time for the subsequent return fight that resulted in the boy losing badly via a knockout and that could spell the end of his promising boxing career because it’s going to be very difficult to regain full confidence after two consecutive defeats.”
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Boxing Chief Cautions Promoters