Boxing has thrown in the towel, soccer should learn

In the wake of the elections that brought in new man Kenneth Gimugu on Saturday, I spoke to one of the central figures in the prior-to never ending saga that has rocked amateur boxing and he sounded tired and resigned to the eventuality of those polls.

“I believe the best people came through, and we are going to work together to ensure that boxing thrives again in the country,” said this mate of mine, sounding every bit exhausted.
He at least stayed the course of the conflict and was involved in the elections that brought that new team into power, and seems ready (eager even), to dust himself up, cut his losses and join the forces of change in championing a new beginning.

That cannot be said of some of the other key players in this drawn out drama when it first broke out, with Roger Ddungu and Dr Ntege Ssengendo two of those conspicuous by their absence from the elective assembly at the Uganda Olympic Committee Headquarters in Lugogo at the weekend, although David Kyambadde braved it out and even cast his vote.

As it is, a virtual unknown has instead assumed the reigns now. He might be a former boxer and now a club president (Entebbe), but Gimugu is not a name that will ring many bells outside the boxing fraternity itself, and the announcement of his victory was met in many quarters with raised eyebrows and the response ‘Kenneth who?’

Amateur boxing, a source of international victories and true pride of the nation, had collapsed into the kind of coma that in ring terms could only be induced by taking concurrent hooks on either jaw from George Foreman and Joe Frazier, along with a body blow from Mike Tyson and a head butt from Evander Holyfield.

There are no guarantees that running battles wont brew up again and there must still be some war addicts spoiling for a fight out there; but why go into another seven years of self-torture and risk the post-war trauma some are already clear victims of, only for it to predictably end the way it did on Saturday, with a big brother like the UOC prevailing, independent ‘executioners’ like the Uganda Law Society presiding, free and fair polls, and a ‘neutral’, more generally acceptable new man at the helm?

The football people cannot be under any illusions themselves; however long their fight lasts the same fate will befall them at the end of it all.

While they are clearly more stubborn and inflexible and would never admit as much, the most prominent protagonists in this mother of all confrontations are beginning to show combat fatigue at different levels. The fighting has taken its toll financially, socially, physically and all else, and will continue to do so.

Swallow your pride like the boxers have, come to the table, indulge in dialogue, make some compromises and reach a consensus. It will happen anyway, so why delay the inevitable?

New UBF executive

President: Kenneth Gimugu
1st vice-president: Lt Col. Godfrey Muwanguzi
2nd vice- president: James Sekajugo
General secretary: Simon Patrick Barigo
Treasurer: Wasajja Ggulu
Organizing secretary: Paul Ayiasi
Publicity secretary: Fred Kavuma
Women representative: Annet Balegga

Mayweather’s first and only loss could come outside ring

Now that the Manny Pacquiao fight didn’t happen when the Philippine phenomenon was at his brilliant best a few years back, you could put your money on Floyd Mayweather retiring without losing a fight, whenever he chooses to call it a day.

In the wake of his defeat of an outclassed Canelo Alvarez on Sunday morning, the staggering figures of how much the self-proclaimed Mr Money was raking in for that fight, what has already gone into the bank on previous huge paydays and what is expected to arrive in the near future, begun to do the rounds.

It is clear that he is a one man money minting machine, one of the foremost the world of sport has ever seen and will ever see.
A reporter with British newspaper the Daily Mail, allowed onto the Mayweather bandwagon before the Alvarez fight, did put some amazing detail to the generally held belief that this money man was an exaggerated spendthrift too.

This reporter’s narrative was a tale of a mindboggling money trail across America - from Los Angeles through Las Vegas to Miami - complete with private jets, endless fleets of cars, gifts, jewelry and the like from a man for whom perhaps the cheapest but quite revealing spend-trend was that he doesn’t wear the same boxers or sneakers twice and instead abandons the ‘used’ ones in hotel rooms.

If he found me and was as much as bothered to respond, Mayweather would tell me it wasn’t my place to tell him how to spend his hard-earned cash (what do I know?); but you and I have seen several other American sports heroes, global superstars and mega-rich people from all walks of life speed down this path.

With all these precedents, it would be just sad if ten years from now Mayweather followed suit in being declared broke and bankrupt. The reality is that there fortune too big to squander.

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