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Charles Manyuchi

Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
WORLD Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight silver champion Charles Manyuchi took a swipe at organisers of the Matabeleland South boxing tournament, accusing them of abusing his name in marketing their event.

At least four provinces, Bulawayo Metropolitan, Midlands, Matabeleland North and the hosts, Matabeleland South will have their boxers trading leather at the tournament set for Njanji Centre, Gwanda this afternoon.

Organisers had claimed that Manyuchi will grace the tournament and parade his WBC welterweight silver belt, something that the renowned pugilist dismissed.

“I was shocked to read that I’ll be in Gwanda tomorrow when I know nothing about that. People must stop abusing my name which is a brand to market their events without my consent. I love boxing and I don’t mind supporting amateur boxing but organisers of such competitions must do the right thing, invite me if they want. Advertising their events using my name is bad because if I don’t turn up people will start calling me names as if I knew about the competition and will think I let them down,” said Manyuchi.

The boxing champion who has a boxing team based in Chivhu said had he been invited for today’s competition, he was going to bring along his boxers.

“Last week I was at a tournament in Shurugwi and took along my team and organised four buses to go and watch the bouts. If the organisers of Matabeleland South tournament had invited me, I was going to bring my team and make my own arrangements like I did with Shurugwi,” said Manyuchi.

On a positive note, Manyuchi wished the Gwanda tournament organisers a successful competition and said he will avail himself for future events if he gets invited. Meanwhile, Matabeleland South provincial coach Clinton Waldman said they are looking forward to an exciting boxing weekend. Gwanda last played host to provinces in 2011 when Matabeleland South held the Zimbabwe National Youth Games.

“Everything is set for the tournament and we took delivery of the stage from Bulawayo today (yesterday). We will have boxers from Bulawayo, Midlands, Matabeleland North as well as Beitbridge and Gwanda,” Waldman said.

On Manyuchi, Waldman said: “We were under the impression that some of the guys who we were organizing the tournament sent him an invite and we were even told he will bring the scoreboards which we were going to use. As a province we would have loved to have the champion here but since he is no longer coming, we hope it won’t dampen the mood.”

— @ZililoR