Drama: MPBCB overturns Kayuni’s victory, declares Masamba as the winner

In a dramatic twist of events, the Malawi Professional Boxing Control Board (MPBCB) has announced Wilson Masamba as the winner of a non title bout against Osgood Kayuni on Saturday at Robins Park in Blantyre.

This is contrary to what was announced on Saturday where Kayuni was declared the winner by Master of Ceremony Dan Makiyi.

The fight, which was organised by Mulanje Last Boxing Promotion and Chombe Food Limited, was highly publicized by the local media but it failed to live up to the expectations of spectators who came in large numbers to witness the rivalry between the two boxers.

However, drama started when a person by the name of Boaz, came up with abnormal figures that indicated Kayuni as the winner instead of Masamba.

According to MPBCB Vice President Mbachichi Nyirenda, who was also the referee during the fight, there was a mathematical error by the Jury.

“An error happened may be because of pressure but the truth is that maximum number of points in a professional bout of eight rounds is 10 and is abnormal to score 88 so in this case, MPBCB is hereby announcing Masamba as the winner based on the points scored by the three judges,” he said.

The Judges that were assigned to handle the fight namely Desire Kambewa, Rexy Luya and Lovemore Katanda were all available during the briefing at Sports Council premises in Blantyre.

According to a document made available to Malawi24, the decision was unanimous with Judge Kambewa scoring 77-76 while Judges Luya and Katanda scored the fight 78-77 and 79-78 respectively in favor of Masamba.

Soon after this announcement, Kayuni’s manager George Matipwili from Zama Boxing Promotion refused to accept the decision saying their boxer won the fight.

“We will not accept this decision because our boy won the fight. You saw how everybody inside the hall rejoiced when the results were coming out so why overturning the results now? “We were not consulted by MPBCB before coming up with this decision and we will appeal against this decision,” he said.

According to Nyirenda, he lifted Kayuni’s hand despite knowing that there were anomalies in the results sent by the Jury.

“According to the rules, once the winner is announced, as a referee, it’s a must to lift his/her hand so i went on to lift Kayuni’s hand despite knowing that the results were not collect because it is per tradition,” he concluded.

The drama was not yet over when one of Kayuni’s manager Olusegon Kapanga slapped Judge Katanda in front of the media after losing his temper with what was being said by the Judge concerning the decision to have Masamba as the winner.