Zari leads celebrity cast for hubby’s show at Lugogo
Socialite Zari (C) was as big an attraction as her husband in the ring. PHOTOS/COURTESY
What you need to know:
Zari came in at 10:25pm but some media, with phones and cameras, covered her more than the 20 bouts in the ring.
You can surely bet that in Uganda’s indoor sports history, no event has ever attracted a bigger celebrity audience like the Uganda Boxing Champions League Week 11.
It’s a record even the organisers, Top Boy Promotions, may struggle to match in the immediate future.
Navio, Alex Muhangi, Spice Diana, Mustafa Kizza, Joseph Ochaya, Shakira-Shakira, Alien Skin and his Fangone Forest, Dr. Bbosa and the Ebonies, among other performing celebs and social media influencers thronged the fully-packed Lugogo Indoor Arena Saturday night. But none attracted more eyeballs and cameras than Zari, with her angelic looks and big brand that makes her a topic for lovers and haters, young and old, rich and poor.
Zari could have watched on her mobile while attending to her business and children in South Africa but boy, she had to fly in and watch her beau Shakib Cham Lutaaya against JK Kazoora live in a corporate boxing match.
Zari came in at 10:25pm but some media, with phones and cameras, covered her more than the 20 bouts in the ring.
They caught her on her knees greeting her parents-in-law, who shared the VIP table on her immediate right. They caught her whispering to her mother-in-law and her friend on her left, and all her facial reactions to the blows being traded on the canvas.
Linda Shine usually leaves her work as a supermarket attendant toward midnight, but on Saturday she was in Lugogo by 10pm.
“I feigned a headache and wanted to go home earlier,” she confessed a lie she had cooked since last week when the self-acclaimed Boss Lady announced on her socials that she would be in Lugogo to support her hubby. But couldn’t Linda watch on TV or her mobile after work?
This was boxing's biggest crowd yet.
“Dude, I wanted to see her from close range; to see how she looks without filters,” she shouted into my ears, against the blaring noise from the speakers, as she sat, her skimpy cream skirt revealing a tattoo on her lower left thigh.
Linda couldn’t stop admiring her idol, occasionally stealing shots of Zari smiling, or fanning herself with her veil or piece of paper.
Kisses in the ring
Shakib mayhave chosen this fight to shake off the marital stress when his marriage was feared over but even after making amends, there was no turning back. And exhausting Kazoora in two rounds, with a few jabs on his rotund belly, Zari who had kept a low profile, congratulated him with a kiss under the bright ring lights. It’s already trending on socials.
Moments later, Shakib swallowed his shyness and kissed Zari, as the crowd finally marveled at her regal looks: silver watch on the left, golden bangles on the right, golden earrings, golden rings, golden hair, eyelashes nearly touching her neatly done eyebrows, maroon lipstick matching her body-long outfit.
Before Shakib-Kazoora, Latif Madoi pulled off his fashion magic by cutting out and hand-stitching a red skimpy two-piece outfit in 13 minutes for TikToker Posha256. Now why do tailors take ages with our garments?
SELECT RESULTS
YOUTHS
60kg: Shakur Mugambe (Lukanga) def. Raymond Ochan (KCCA), 5:0
ELITES
63.5kgs: Paul Raskara (KCCA) def. Reagan Magumba (Lukanga), RSC-I RD 3,
60kg: Ibrahim Kemisi (Mutajjazi) def. Shafick Nasaasira (Police), 5:0
51kg: Livingstone Matovu (Brawn) def. Moses Kimera (Cobap)
80kg: Sadat Kilwana (Zebra) def. Denis Okeny (UPDF), KO, RD2
