Tadious Manyepo — Zimpapers Sports Hub
ACE female boxer Kudakwashe "Take Money" Chiwandire has just one wish for 2025.
She wants to take back her place at the top of the ladder.
The 29-year-old did not have an ideal 2024.
Desperate to shake off ring rust, having last been on the stage when losing her bid to claim the WBC gold from Mexican star Yamileth Mercado in March 2023, Chiwandire thrice failed to nail a fight.
The number one rated pound-for-pound female boxer in Africa thought she had found a chance to lay her hands on a piece of silverware in September when she was put out to square off against South Africa's Nomusa Ngema for the WBF intercontinental belt, but the latter withdrew in the eleventh hour.
Then Tanzanian Flora Machela followed suit in awkwardly signing out late on having had the Zimbabwean travel all the way to Lilongwe in November.
With Machela chickening out, a stop-gap opponent was secured in Malawian Loveness Khoka, but she again withdrew just as it was almost time for the bout.
With frustrations building up, the former WBC interim champion finally did get to enter the ring early last month and predictably lost, on a split-points decision, to Russia's Karinaz Tazabekova in Saint Petersburg.
But whatever she lost in that duel, the Zimbabwean feels she learnt some valuable lessons as she got some solid groundwork to build on ahead of her first step back to try and conquer the WBC circuit.
She has some serious work cut out for her, and she is already conditioning for the upcoming WBC Africa contest against Malawian Ellen Simwaka on March 29 in Harare.
Machela is the second-best-ranked pound-for-pound female boxer in the continent.
Her manager, promoter, and coach, Clyde Musonda, said they took a brief break for the Christmas holidays but are already back in the gym.
"This is the year that Kuda Chiwandire wants to reclaim her glory days," said Musonda.
"In 2023, things did not go according to the way we had crafted.
"We wanted to conquer the WBC world as we got a shot at the WBC gold title. Unfortunately, we failed to win it.
"We were also on our way to adequately prepare for the year 2025, but the opponents we thought we had secured kept on withdrawing.
"It's very unfortunate things had to happen that way, but we are happy we managed to finally get a ready opponent in Russia.
"We lost that fight, but I can tell you it was such a good experience for us.
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"The duel was closely fought, and we could have won it too. But we were never too worried about the result; all we wanted was to at least get into the ring and be able to fight. "The real deal is coming this year. We open the calendar with the WBC Africa title duel against Ellen Simwaka.
"We know how difficult things will be. We have started our preparations well, and very soon we will be in camp. We are trying to work very hard and be able to make 2025 our year." If Chiwandire wins the WBC Africa title, she will give herself another chance to challenge for the world stripe.
