World Kickboxing Federation (WKF) Muaythai kickboxer Umar Semata will have to wait another day to defend his intercontinental welter weight title thanks to heavy rains that led to postponement of his bout.
What started as a good evening for the organisers ended on a sad note as a heavy downpour at Hotel Africana couldn’t allow the highly anticipated fight between Semata and Australian Piotr Lagodzki to go on.
It all started smoothly at the venue with a number of artists entertaining a few revellers who had come to witness Semata defend the title he won last year after beating Egyptian Abdallah Hussein.
The Under Cards
However, the entertainment took longer than expected as the fight under card fight between Ugandans Ramathan Walujjo and Sharif Bukenya only got underway at around 10.27pm and it lasted all seven rounds with the latter winning with 3-0 unanimous decision from the judges.
Then came John ‘AK47’ Tumukunde against Kenya’s Levis Michael which the former won but only after the latter had gotten complications with his genitals towards the end of the second last round.
Sharif Bukenya celebrates his triumph over Ramazan Walujjo (Photo Credits: John Batanudde)
Drama starts as the would be 3rd undercard fight delays
After second under card fight, drama started to unfold as the ring announcer called for the next fighters in South Africa’s Ncedo Gomba and Morocco’s Samir Shakir to no avail.
It took nearly half an hour for Gomba to show up in his Blue Corner but Shakir was nowhere to be seen.
Desire Luzinda takes over
After waiting for close to another fifteen minutes, musician Desire Luzinda of the ‘Kitone’ fame surfaced on stage to entertain the crowd that was getting agitated by the delays of the missing fighter.
At this moment, the clock was showing 12.05am and she sang for some minutes before leaving the stage at around 12.15am.
No sooner had she left stage than power went off but only at the ‘Peoples Space’- the venue of the fight.
Power goes off, Zimbabwean fighter vows not to step in the ring due to mistreatment
Finger pointing started when power went off but behind the scenes, a lot was transpiring at backstage.
First, efforts to restore power didn’t prove easy with reports that KCCA had interfered after the event had gone beyond legitimate time (12.00am) while others pointed at Vibes Production’s generator as faulty.
But the most important hindrance to all this was the fact that Zimbabwean boxer and former WBO champion Tineyi Maridzo who was scheduled to fight Ugandan David Basajjamivule vowed not to fight citing mistreatment.
“When they brought us, they just put us behind here (backstage) and gave us no direction on where to warm up or dress,” an angry and emotional Maridzo told Kawowo Sports.
“This is very unfair and unprofessional. Now they are telling me to prepare… Now where do I prepare from? I have not even done the pre-bout medical and you want me to fight? Come on.”
At this juncture, attention had turned from trying to restore power to persuading Maridzo whose bout by the way was an ‘East & Central Africa title fight’.
Alice Namatovu (fight promoter) faints
A one Mugai had now launched a verbal attack on Maridzo and his manager for asking for too much in dressing rooms and medical and even cited an example of Semata who was also warming up just backstage.
“If a world champion (Semata) didn’t ask for dressing rooms, who are you then,” Mugai asked. It was at this time that Maridzo revealed how Mugai had even failed to deliver the money Alice had given to the boxer.
“Now look at this man. He even couldn’t deliver the $ 100 given to me and cut off $ 20 and he thinks am a fool,” Maridzo said pointing to Mugai who disappeared in shame.
Promoter Alice Namatovu (far right) fainted after Zimbabwean Maridzo vowed not to fight (Pnoto Credits: John Batanudde)
Namatovu then intervened by facing Maridzo requesting him to fight or else the entire event was marred. The Zimbabwean’s reply nearly sent the soft spoken Alice to the grave. “I am not going to fight,” he said looking straight in her eyes.
Namatovu’s response to this was fainting and the medics had to come in to save the situation. Watching this, Maridzo rushed to his manager and said, “Let’s fight for Alice. She has collapsed.”
His agreement cooled the hearts of many and now it was time to turn attention to getting power again which happened at around 1.14am.
Drama continued with now the Moroccan fighter appearing in the ring only to be sent away as Maridzo and Basajjamivule now got their 12 round bout underway.
Zimbabwean Boxer Tineyi Maridzo against Uganda’s Basajjamivule (Photo Credits: John Batanudde)
The Ugandan edged the fight which last all rounds but the two pugilists had to endure a strong downpour in the 11th and 12th round.
Time had approached 2am and all seats had gone empty as rains forced the few resilient fans that endured all the misfortune.
The Rains at Hotel Africana (Photo Credits: John Batanudde)
At around 2.15am, it was announced that bad weather had led to the cancellation of the main fight between Semata and Lagodzki with a future date not communicated perhaps at a press conference on Saturday at 4pm according to organisers.
