It seems that gone are the years when Botswana’s boxing fraternity was the most feared in international competitions.
Local boxers used to be a festering sore for many countries at various international tournaments.
For Zone VI, it was almost a whitewash as local boxers used to put up sterling performances, winning most medals.
Botswana was also almost always guaranteed a medal at even big international competitions, like the Commonwealth, All Africa Games and AIBA.
Renowned boxers included Gilbert Khunwane, Lesly Sekotswe, Khumiso Ikgopoleng, Lechedzani ‘Master’ Luza, Dintwa Sloca and Thuso Khubamang. Sekotswe and Sloca have since joined the professional ranks in South Africa where they are using the expertise they gained at amateur ranks while others have retired and are trying to groom youngsters.
The only major competition that is still a bit difficult for local boxers to win something from is the Olympics.
The furthest point they reached was the semi-finals where they were one step from the bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics.
Nowadays, the current crop is finding it difficult to fill the gloves left by the yesteryear’s golden generation.
Even the Zone VI tournament is no longer that bed of roses as was the case before.
Local boxers rarely bring home more than four medals. The saddest thing is the fact that some of the promising boxers, after the golden generation, are no longer showing that potential they had when they started boxing.
The typical example is Thato Batshegi, who had a great potential to even make it at major tournaments but some upcoming youngsters have since overtaken him. These include the likes of Oteng Oteng and Tirafalo Seoko. The spokesperson for Botswana Boxing Association (BOBA), Willoughby Kemoen, told Sunday Standard that, indeed, there is a huge difference from yester year boxers to the current crop.
He said this is because the boxing fraternity is in a transition period. “Everybody can see that the current boxers we have are incomparable to those we used to have. But I can assure you that it is matter of time before we produce such kind of boxers again. There are many upcoming ones who will be first-rate boxers in a few years. Already two prominent ones that are showing great flair are Oteng and Seoko,” he said.
Kemoen also added that the problem is necessitated by the fact that the boxing fraternity has changed a great deal over the past few years and as such adaptation takes a bit of time.
In regard to the Batshegi’s losing of his renowned colours, Kemoeng said he is on a comeback trail and expressed hope that he will be back where he belongs.
Batshegi used to cause controversy by replacing seasoned boxers like Ikgopoleng for some international events and it came as a surprise to many people when he started to slump and subsequently failing to qualify for regional tournaments like Zone VI.
On the other hand one element that is credited for the success of the yester year crop is the fact that almost all of them were based in Gaborone and for that matter in the same club at the University of Botswana. As such it was easy for them to train together.
