Edwin Okong’o during the team’s training session at Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, on August 6, 2019. [File, Standard]
With less than four weeks to Africa Zone Three Boxing Championships, Kenyan boxers have exuded confidence of registering positive results.
Africa Games middleweight gold medallist Edwin Okong’o said nothing will stop them from winning the overall title at home.
“We have what it takes to show our might against our opponents this time in Nairobi. We have beaten them at their backyard in the past and it’ll be repeated at home,” Okong’o told Standard Sports.
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However, Okongo who boxes for national league champions Kenya Defence Forces advised his teammates not to underrate their opponents.
The boxers are first expected to showcase their talents during the third leg of the National Boxing League to be hosted in Nakuru next week.
Middleweight sensational George Cosby said Kenya has the ability to win the overall title due to immense talent in the squad adding that the kind of training they are being taken through was encouraging.
“This is a chance for us to show our opponents that we are up-to-the task of emerging the best in the region and in the continent and be assured we will not disappoint,” he said.
Owing to the rigorous training they have undergone at the club and national team level, Cosby said they are ready for the showpiece.
Kenya is expected to field two teams as hosts just like Democratic Republic of Congo in the last event in Kinshasa in 2023, a development that gives more local pugilists more exposure ahead of the World Men Boxing Championships in November.
DRC are the Africa Zone Three defending champions.
Bantamweight Shaffi Bakari said he was more focused in the league championships ahead of other assignments.
“The league assignments are set to open doors for me in other assignments besides shaping boxers for international championships.
“We can talk about the Africa Zone Three Championships after our fights in Nakuru,” said Bakari who won a silver medal in Kinshasa two years ago.
Bakari must have been a worried man after losing the bantamweight fight to Dennis Muthama of KDF in the finals of the second leg of the league championships in Mombasa last month.
“We can talk about the Africa Zone Three Championships after our fights in Nakuru,” said Bakari who won a silver medal in the same event in Kinshasa two years back.
Head coach Musa Benjamin said the team was responding well to training and it’s a step at a time in the fight for top honours.
“The boys are good and good in training. We are studying every aspect of their training before coming up with the teams that should take part in the event.
They are training at Mathare Police Depot in Nairobi.