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Charles Manyuchi

Harare Bureau
CHARLES Manyuchi’s manager Chris Malunga says work is in progress for the Zimbabwean boxer to defend his title in February, in Singapore.

Manyuchi was set to defend his title in October but ended up taking on Jose Agustin Julio Feria in a non-title fight after Frenchman Damien Martin pulled out of the title fight.

And there has been uncertainty concerning Manyuchi’s status after it emerged that Russia’s Dmitry Mikhaylenko, whom he defeated earlier this year, had taken over the WBC silver title on an interim basis.

Addressing the media yesterday at Monomotapa hotel, in Harare, Malunga said Manyuchi was still the champion.

But he will have to defend his title in Singapore first against an opponent yet to be named on February 17 and then take on Mikhaylenko in May.

“The Singapore fight is supposed to take place but that is subject to approval by WBC because even certain quarters of WBC are interested that the fight should take place in Singapore with a boxer from Singapore.

“Charles Manycuhi is still the WBC silver champion. I will tell you one thing, an interim championship can be conducted and once it is conducted, it is created in the interest of creating better opponents for the WBC silver champion.

“It does not mean that once you become an interim champion then you become automatically the champion, no there is nothing like that in boxing,” said Malunga.

Malunga could not, however, reveal the identity of Manyuchi’s opponent indicating that they are still waiting for approval by the WBC.

“I cannot give details until approval from WBC. Even the Russian people, Dmitry Mikhaylenko’s handlers, are in support that let the champion defend his title in Singapore, then fight their boxer in May in Russia. He has to defend in Singapore then go and defend against an interim champion in Russia,” said Mikhaylenko.

Malunga, who is set to attend the WBC convention this month, said they are going to push for Manyuchi to fight for the WBC gold title.

“The major issue why we are going to Miami is that we want to make sure that WBC silver champion, Charles Manyuchi, gets close to the WBC gold.

“We will make sure that he moves forward towards the championship itself, the WBC gold. We want Charles Manyuchi to fight for the WBC gold,” Malunga said.

Zimbabwe National Boxing and Wrestling Control Board chairman, Paul Nenjerama, said they had called for the media briefing to clarify Manyuchi’s status as the WBC silver welterweight champion.

“We felt it necessary that we have this press conference to clarify misconceptions and misinformation that have been peddled in the media as far as the status of our champion, Charles Manyuchi is concerned.

“We are there as a board and we can be able to assist you. The recent article created a lot of misinformation. We went out of our way as the board to get in touch with Charles Manyuchi’s handlers,” said Nenjerama.