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Tadious Manyepo, recently in Zambia

ICONIC boxer Charles Manyuchi almost collapsed at the end of his first 30km road run when he was signed by a Zambian stable that eventually moulded him into a World Boxing Council silver champion.

The 34-year-old is retiring from the sport and he took one of his farewell fights against Donald Kampamba to the Lusaka Government Complex last weekend as he bid his Zambian fans goodbye.

His bout, which he won on a unanimous decision was the main supporting act to the main fight, an Africa Boxing Union contest, featuring Zambian and South African fighters.

His former manager/promoter Chris Malunga of the Oriental Quarries Promotions put together the well-attended bill as Zambian boxing fanatics came in their numbers to see their former hero Manyuchi, who at one point captured the WBC silver and ABU belts, in action for one last                      time.

Yet, according to Malunga, the Masvingo-based pugilist was very frail and weak when he adopted him.

People surrounding Malunga even doubted if he had made the right decision to take Manyuchi on board.

“When I first saw Manyuchi in a tournament, I realised that he had a lot of potential. I saw a very good fighter with top skills,” recalls Malunga.

“I gave him a trial and he convinced me. But he was very skinny and weak.

“The first thing I had to do was to make him strong physically because mentally he seemed to be okay.

“At our stable, we do road runs 25-30km per day. In the initial stages, Charles (Manyuchi) struggled a lot with those runs because his legs were very weak. But he was a determined boy who knew what he wanted to achieve in boxing.

“Eventually, he became strong and achieved remarkable things in this game.”

Manyuchi spent over five years under the stewardship of Malunga and at one point he was the most popular boxer in Zambia.

In a country that put so much attachment to this sport in almost the same way Zimbabweans do on football, Manyuchi was almost a saint across the Zambezi before he decided to dis-engage from Oriental Quarries and come back home.

He agreed that he was frail and vividly remembers how he almost fainted in the first three 30km runs he did under Malunga.

“I was weak of course but there was also the issue of altitude change. I struggled to breathe at the end of the races. I could feel that I was losing it and almost fainted,” he said.

“Inside two, three weeks, I was passing urine mixed with blood. It was so scary. The fitness regime was too vigorous. But I had to undergo that because I was aiming to transform my miserable life for the better.

“It was not easy adapting to that fierce fitness programme.

“It was very brutal and bloody. But I told myself that if it doesn’t kill me then I am not going to run away.

“I persevered and eventually got into the tune.”

Manyuchi is one of the shining products from Oriental Quarries where upcoming boxers look up to him for inspiration.

He is leaving the ring but not the sport as he has set up his own stable, the Charles Manyuchi Boxing Academy in Chivhu which has already started producing champions like Tatenda “Signature” Biningu, Brendon “Boika” Denes and Evans “Vanso” Usayihwevhu.