By Monwabisi Jimlongo
The fact that Japanese boxer Kenichi Ogawa always knew that he was going to fight for the vacant International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior-lightweight title gives him an advantage over Azinga ‘Golden Boy’ Fuzile.
This is the view of Fuzile’s trainer Mzamo ‘Chief’ Njekanye as he’s busy with his boxer’s preparations ahead of the world title fight against the 33-year-old Japanese.
Fuzile got the golden opportunity to face the former Japanese junior-lightweight champion after an injury forced Tajikistan boxer Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov to pull out of the title fight against Ogawa.
Seeing that Rakhimov was out of the picture in as far as the contest is concerned, Rumble Africa Promotions (RAP), who promote Fuzile, got invited to title fight negotiations.
“Ogawa has an advantage because he’s been training for the world title fight for some time now. He’s been preparing to fight against Rakhimov since the time we were training for Martin Ward,” Njekanye remarked.
“Ogawa wouldn’t say no even if we could be ordered to fight tomorrow. We are not ready, I’m being honest here. You must remember that we were waiting for a winner between Ogawa and Rakhimov. We didn’t expect to get a shot this early, but we are not surprised by the latest developments.”
Initially, Rakhimov and Ogawa were due to meet in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), last month. But Rakhimov’s injury forced a postponement of the fight.
Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Fuzile moved to the number one spot after he stopped Ward in an elimination bout in the United States in May.
And Njekanye has revealed that they are going to hold a training camp. However, where they will hold the training camp will be determined by the fight venue.
“Obviously, we will have a training camp, but we will only decide where to hold it once we get to know the venue of the fight. We will be forced to camp outside our country if the fight is not here in South Africa,” Njekanye said.
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