The Parade December 2015 | Page 45

waning fortunes of this beautiful sport where even after a grueling tussling inside the ring the bloodied opponents are seen to embrace at the end of a bout,” said Tome who was among the full house until the early hours of Sunday morning. Aaron Mhonyera, the Chitungwiza Municipality Sports Administrator paid tribute to the organisers of the tournament, BoxAfrica, and said it went a long way in portraying the city in good light. “It shows it’s not all doom and gloom for Chitungwiza and if what we saw tonight can be repeated before the end of the year we could on the right track to providing a worthwhile service for our residents who have been starved of meaningful entertainment for a long time. “I will certainly take the matter up with my superiors and ask that we seriously consider making Chitungwiza the home of boxing in Zimbabwe,” he said amid wild cheers from the floor. More than 30 bouts were staged courtesy of an arrangement made possible by a new boxing academy, BoxAfrica, in collaboration with Chitungwiza Municipality, Chitungwiza Press Club and the Harare province of the Zimbabwe Boxing Federation. The event, which began at 10pm had the seemingly boxing starved full house of approximately 1 000 fans kept on the edges of their seats until the early hours of Sunday morning with a thrilling performance put together by the match-makers. Among the clubs that took part were the BoxAfrica Academy, Powerhouse Gym, Iron Tribe, Bees Manyuchi, ZNA School of Physical Sport and Training and Masvingo. A musical consortium of ZimDancehall artists from the surburb trading as Dhandahead Crew (similar to Mbare’s Chillspot) provided entertainment to spice up the evening. TP Page 45 The Parade - Zimbabwe’s Most Read Lifestyle Magazine December 2015