Boxing – often a bloody mug’s game

Welterweight Bongo Lipembo in action in SA a few years ago. Pic: N-Squared.

African boxing has always been fertile ground for chancers.

The loose regulations and frequent indifference to common sense make it a fascinating, and often fraught, place to do business.

The latest tomfoolery took place in Namibia at the weekend when Bongo Lipembo, a great little fighter from the DRC resident in South Africa, fought Namibia’s Bethuel Ushona for the IBO’s African belt.

The last time we heard from Lipembo he was down in the dumps, having had his license withdrawn by Boxing South Africa on account of a serious health condition.

It was a tragic end to a promising career, particularly as Lipembo was fresh off a KO win over former world champion Isaac Hlatshwayo.

“We unfortunately found out that he has hepatitis B. This is a virus that stays permanently in one’s blood, so there’s no way he can continue boxing,” Golden Gloves publicist Brian Mitchell said in 2012. “We tried to get medical attention for him because he’s a really great fighter. But once it turned out to be this condition, there was nothing much that we could do.”

Given that boxing is a “blood sport” and Lipembo’s condition was well known among those in the boxing community, it’s a staggering slip-up by the Namibian Boxing Federation.

In the event, Lipembo lost, hardly surprising given his long absence from the game.

His participation is another black eye for the sport, but boxing is nothing if not resilient.

Controversy and finagling is its lifeblood.

Little wonder some call it a mug’s game.

It often is.