The Kenya national boxing team, Hit Squad, head coach Musa Benjamin has bemoaned poor officiating in the region urging Referees and Judges to up their game.
An frustrared Musa urged for top notch professionalism ringside and called out patriotism as something that is affecting the sport. Musa’s remarks come in the wake of what he describes as dubious officiating in some bouts during the Nakawa Combined versus Nairobi County international friendly match last Sunday Kampala.
“Officiating was a bit wanting. Our R&Js (Referees and Judges) should avoid patriotism irrespective of the nationality of the boxers in the ring,” a disappointed Musa told the Media.
The veteran coach touched on three bouts where he felt Kenyan boxers was robbed. This meant Nairobi Combined lost 10-5 against the Ugandans when in fact they should have snatched an 8-7 victory if officiating was proper.
“Poor officiating is not helpful to boxers in the long term because they become complacent believing they are good. Fair officiating complements the coaches’ efforts in uplifting our standards in the region,” offered the experienced tactician who also serves as the Secretary General of the Nairobi County Boxing Association.
According to Musa who actually travelled with the team as Team Manager, suggested that three pugilists; Silas Onyango (light-flyweight), Emmanuel Chondo (flyweight) and Chris Juma (featherweight) won their fights clean. He went ahead to accuse Ugandan judges for favoring their countrymen and giving victories to Nakawa boxers.
Onyango and Chondo lost on identical scores of 3-2 to Kato Kazibwe and Matovu Livingstone respectively while Juma went down 4-1 to Uganda’s African Games bronze medallist Kassim Murungi. Musa also told the Press how their game plan for most of the fights worked but judging went against them.
Musa however praised the tournament as a good base for boxers to sharpen their craft.
“Nairobi has great potential, the boxers have very good attitude and hunger for success. We need to work on their defense and movement, though!”
“Such events are useful for the region; we should therefore organize many of them for the juniors, youth and elite boxers to gain the much needed experience especially improving their ring craft and ring discipline,” he said adding that a lot of lessons of value were picked.
