Nonina beats Zimbabwe’s female champion
THE South African bantamweight champion, Bukiwe Nonina outclassed her Zimbabwean counterpart, Diana Makumbe with a unanimous decision during a boxing tournament in Giyani on Saturday.
LIMPOPO – THE South African bantamweight champion, Bukiwe Nonina outclassed her Zimbabwean counterpart, Diana Makumbe with a unanimous decision during a boxing tournament in Giyani on Saturday.
Nonina said she spent a month training hard in preparation for the fight.
She further said she found Makumbe to be a closed book, as she did not obtain any video of the 12 fights Makumbe fought in.
“She releases powerful punches, thus I always closed the gap in order to avoid them. I should have put her down with a TKO in the third round, but she proved me wrong. I kept on with my pace, destroying her face with upper cut jabs. I also felt it in my heart that I won the fight,” she said.
Makumbe accepted the defeat and said Nonina was a smart boxer who knew scoring points.
“I’m short and Nonina is tall and she used that to her advantage. I spent two months training and I plan to get a promoter in Zimbabwe because we don’t have one. I also don’t have sponsors in Zimbabwe. It is just going to the ring and fighting,” said Makumbe.
Nonina’s trainer, Emmanuel Mutavhatsindi, said defeating Makumbe boosted Nonina’s morale as Makumbe was a champion in Zimbabwe.
“Makumbe addressed journalists in Zimbabwe just a week before the fight and said she was going to put Nonina down with a TKO,” he said.
“We are busy preparing for a fight on August 16, where the challenger is Nonina’s cousin, Sisanda Kikiteni of Eastern Cape. We have already started with training and we will take Kikiteni as a serious challenger. She had four fights and lost all of them. Kikiteni should go down with a TKO and after that we are going to focus on international fights.”
Knockout round for Lim BSA licensees
3rd win takes Nonina to the boxing top
