Zambia’s boxing posterboy Patrick ‘Baddo’ Chinyemba captured the IBA African Flyweight title via a fourth-round technical knockout victory over Ghana’s Theophilus ‘Lopez’ Allotey in the first-ever IBA Champions’ Night card staged in Africa at the Adwa Museum hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Saturday night, 17 August.

Allotey, seemingly unable to withstand Chinyemba’s energy-sapping body blows, visited the canvas on three occasions. The referee was in the process of counting out Allotey in his third visit to the canvas during the fourth round following Chinyemba’s digging short uppercut to the body that saw the 22-year-old Ghanaian boxer on his knees.

He beat the count and went to his corner pointing with his gloves the underbelt section signalling to his seconders that Chinyemba had hit him with a low blow. The Zambian must have treated Allotey’s underbelt complaint like a big joke as he looked at his corner and smiled, obviously disbelieving he had hit Allotey below the belt.

The referee then waived it off for a TKO win for Chinyemba seemingly not convinced by Allotey’s imaginary underbelt punch from Chinyemba who was loudly applauded by the packed house as he danced to celebrate his deserved win. The Ghanaian had an edge in the first round, but Chinyemba started dictating the pace towards the end of the second round clicking into gear in the fourth round by subjecting Allotey to a barrage of punches mostly aimed at his body.

In a post-match interview in his dressing room, Allotey was in tears alleging the referee did not penalise Chinyemba for what he alleged as being a low blow. Allotey’s coach Dr Ofori Asare was not sure whether it was a low blow that saw Allotey limping back to the dressing room.

Until the fourth round when Allotey was TKO’d, all three judges scored the fight in favour of Chinyemba.

Chinyemba and his two coaches, Wisdom Mudenda and Ariel Banda, laughed off Allotey’s claims of a low blow. ‘He’s just pretending. I never punched him below the belt, he should accept he couldn’t manage my body blows,’ said Chinyemba with the glittering IBA Africa flyweight belt strapped on his waist.

This is the second victory for the colourful Zambian boxer in the IBA Champions’ Night, and he’s so far, the only twice African winner in the prestigious series organised in the format of professional boxing. His first win was last year in Tajikistan’s capital city Dushanbe where he outpointed Russia’s Artur Nagapetian in a six-round flyweight bout.

The highly anticipated first-ever IBA Champions’ Night seven-bout card in Addis Ababa, also attended by distinguished guests among them Ethiopia’s Sports Minister Shewit Shanka,  featured boxers from Zambia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Morocco, Mexico, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, DR Congo, and Tanzania whose Commonwealth Games and Africa bronze medallist Yusuf Changalawe scored a split 2-1 win over DR Congo’s African Games light-heavyweight champion Peter Pita Kabeji in their third encounter.

Kabeji had defeated Changalawe twice this year, first in the semi-finals of the African Games in Accra, Ghana, and in the inaugural Mandela Africa Boxing Cup tournament in Durban, South Africa. Kabeji therefore entered the ring as the favourite, but the Tanzanian boxer changed the tide to claim victory which was highly disputed by Kabeji and his coaches.

‘I take the defeat in a sportsmanship spirit but it’s obvious I’m the winner, I’m waiting for Changalawe at home in the African Championships in October,’ said Kabeji who has been representing the national team since 2018. He made his presence felt at the 2019 African Games in Rabat, Morocco where he settled for silver. He went on to win two gold medals in the 2022 and 2023 African Championships in Maputo and Yaounde respectively.

In the opening middleweight bout of the night, Nigeria’s London-based Patricia Mbata, a project manager in construction, outwitted Mozambican two-time African champion Rady Gramane to score her second consecutive victory in her third bout against the southpaw Gramane who is also a bronze medallist in the 2022 World Championships in Istanbul. Making her international debut for Nigeria last year in the African Championships in Yaounde, Cameroon, Mbata was eliminated by Gramane who went on to win gold and retain her middleweight title she won in the 2022 tournament in Maputo. Mbata avenged the defeat in the semi-finals of the African Games this year in Accra, Ghana, and went on to claim her first ever gold medal. Mbata was on cloud nine after her second consecutive victory over Gramane.

‘I’m so excited beating Gramane again, and also boxing in eight-ounce gloves without headgear for the first time,’ said a jovial Mbata after the six-round middleweight bout which however lacked the expected fireworks. ‘I was fully prepared for the fight, in fact, I couldn’t believe it when the six rounds ended because I still had so much gas in my tank. My win has given me more confidence and shows that I’m progressing well since I joined the Nigeria national team last year.’

Despite getting massive backing from the home crowd, two Ethiopian boxers, lightweight Abubeker Sefan and African Games middleweight bronze medallist Temesgen Mitiku, were beaten fair and square. Sefan proved no match for Ghana’s African Games champion and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Joseph Commey who beat him 3-0 in a one-sided bout that had Sefan back-pedalling for the better part of the fight with Commey doing the chasing. It was only in the second round that Sefan rocked Commey with rapid combinations to the loud applause from Ethiopian fans. Most of them stood up cheering the homeboy but his onslaught was short-lived as Commey returned in the driver’s seat to thoroughly dominate Sefan.

Much was expected from Mitiku in his second fight against Morocco’s African Games silver medallist Yassine Elouarz. The Moroccan defeated Mitiku in the semi-finals at the African Games in Accra. In their second encounter, Elouarz was more dominant hurting Mitiku several times with well-timed body shots.

‘My coach Yerik Algabek from Kazakhstan told me to go for the body because when he covered his face with his guard high he left his body wide open, that’s why I caught him several times with my body blows,’ said Elouarz.

In other supporting bouts – all minimumweight – that involved boxers from outside Africa, Russia’s World championships bronze medallist put up a refined performance to unanimously outpoint Mexico’s Daniel Valladeraz while Kazakhstan’s Temirtas Zhussupov celebrated a victory over  Uzbekistan’s Nodirjon Mirzakhmedov.

Overall, it was a wonderful night of high-quality boxing with a proud President of the African Boxing Confederation (AFBC) Eyassu Wossen thanking the International Boxing Association for bringing the Champions’ Night boxing to Africa for the first time.

‘We’re very grateful for IBA’s outstanding gesture to hold the first Champions’ Night fights in Africa, it was a historic moment in African boxing, the organisation was fantastic. We hope IBA will stage the next Champions’ Night fights in Zimbabwe,’ said Wossen.

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Media contacts:

Elena Sobol, Head of Communications and Public Relations, International Boxing Association: elena.sobol@iba.sport

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