Boxers have been locked out of the annual national boxing championship for the first time in more that 40 years thus putting the spot light on the bitter battles that have taken center stage in the sport of boxing.
“It’s unbelievable that for the first time in Uganda amateur boxing history that we shall have no national open the biggest event on the local calendar,” Patrick Lihanda, the vice president Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation technical said at Lugogo boxing gym. “The boxers here are very disgruntled and angry after weighing in and ready to boxer they have been stopped from taking part by the national council of sports.”
UABF has been involved in a long running dispute with Olympic Committee president Roger Ddungu and his previous executive which has led to the invention of world amateur boxing body AIBA intervening to solve the dispute, but that has not gone down well with the Godfrey Nyakana, group who accuse the the local olympic committee boss for influencing the running of the sport.
Last week Ddungu called a press conference to address the situation claiming the country was on a path of being banned from the Olympics and all AIBA related competitions if the battles continued.
“I can assure the general public their is no body that is running boxing in the country and the local olympic committee will handle all boxing matters until we clear our mess here in the country,” Ddungu explained last week. “AIBA has told us to clean our act or else we are banished for boxing activities.”
Boxers from Gulu, Kasese, Jinja, Kilembe have been left stranded at Lugogo boxing gym and feel let down after raising money and teams to come participate in the event.
The national open is used to select national side to represent the nation at the Africa qualifiers from which boxers are selected to represent their countries at the Olympic games.