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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

WORLD Boxing Federation (WBF) Africa heavyweight champion Elvis Moyo has turned down an offer to fight in Uganda saying he will only trade leather at internationally recognised bouts.

The South African-based Zimbabwean pugilist, who saw a short-notice deal to fight former two-time World Boxing Organisation European heavyweight title holder Christian Hammer fall through, is hoping to bounce back stronger after the festive holidays.

Moyo was supposed to box Hammer on Friday in Poland.

“I was contacted for a short-notice fight against Hammer, who is ranked 16th in the world, for a 20 December fight in Poland but the deal just collapsed. It would have been great to fight him for my profile even at short notice.

“I also got another call to fight in Uganda but I turned it down because as I was checking Thamsanqa Dube’s statistics I discovered that his wasn’t sanctioned and it’s not on boxrec.com, a database of all professional boxers. I wouldn’t go and fight at unsanctioned matches even if it’s an easy fight and one that I can win. What I want is to fight at bills that are recorded,” said Moyo.

“I’ll keep training during the holidays so that when the festive season ends, I am ready for fights. Someone is trying to get me a fight early next year in Greece where Flo Simba and Isaac Chilembe fought and won last Friday,” he said.

Moyo, who has nine career wins, five losses and two draws, last fought in May when he controversially lost to Arnold Gjergjaj in Sporthalle, Switzerland.

Efforts to get a sanctioned fight after that defeat have been hitting a snag. His proposed bill against Evgeny Romanov of Russia on August 24 was cancelled after he failed to get a visa. – @ZililoR