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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter

FORMER Zimbabwe lightweight and middleweight boxing champion Mordecai Donga took a dig at former World Boxing Council silver welterweight champion Charles Manyuchi for pulling out of a challenge match 10 days before the fight.

Donga, who is now based in Eswatini  and was hoping to make a comeback into the ring with a non-title fight against World Boxing Federation title holder Manyuchi, described him as “The Chicken” for pulling off the plug ahead of their clash which was scheduled for December 21 at Harare Showground.

“I said it four weeks ago, that Charles Manyuchi ‘The Chicken’ was going to chicken out of the fight. He saw the sharp reflexes of a true champion and thought twice. It’s only ten days before the Chaos in Harare and Charles ‘The Chicken’ and his camp are singing a different tune now. Scared to death. We remain committed to developing boxing in the country and not import basketball players from Argentina to knock them out. I remain the only person to have defeated him in the land, and l remain his menace. He is having sleepless nights. He thought 21 December was not going to come. Now we are in December and he is scared.

“Charles ‘The Chicken’ stop chickening away. The nation demanded this fight. We need not rob the nation of a fight it demanded. Come out and fight and get knocked out. You can run but you can’t hide. Your boxing is so pathetic,” ranted Donga.

Manyuchi announced his decision to withdraw from the fight through his coach Ali Phiri on Monday, who told our Harare Bureau that his boxer would gain nothing from fighting Donga.

“We have nothing to prove against Donga (Mordecai). He is not even rated in the world, let alone registered with the Zimbabwe Boxing Control Board. Donga has not been in the game for almost 10 years and he can’t make the middle-weight cut-off. So we can’t act unprofessionally.

Charles (Manyuchi) is a champion and he cannot be involved in such affairs. If we allow him to do that, we will damage his reputation more than anything else. If Donga is keen to come back into the ring, he has to challenge other boxers and become a champion so that he will be in a position to challenge Manyuchi,” said Ali.

Donga (40), has been training in Eswatini to fight Manyuchi who is 10-years younger and has been posting videos of his training sessions on social media as part of marketing the fight.

 “I once fought Manyuchi and I beat him, and we had a return fight which he won. After Manyuchi’s recent fights, boxing lovers thought this guy is getting very weak opposition and if he’s really a champion he must defeat Donga. There was a lot of talk about it until he took the fight and I came on board, these guys put up the fight and they are calling it a challenge match.

“Of course rust has accumulated, but look boxing takes a lot of determination, lots of courage and training. I’m working hard with my sparring partners so I’m ok,” said Donga.

According to boxrec.com, Donga’s last fight was on June 3, 2011, a bill he lost to Manyuchi by a unanimous judges’ decision.

Donga had beaten Manyuchi on July 25, 2009. For Donga, who has 22 career fights, winning 13 bouts and losing nine.  Manyuchi beat Argentine opponent Diego Diaz Gallardo in a title fight in September.  He has an immaculate record of 24 career wins, four defeats and a draw. – @ZililoR