Five medals including one silver, four bronze, and a total of sh33m in cash prizes is what the national boxing team settled for at the just concluded Mandela Boxing Cup.

The six-day inaugural tournament was held between April 15 and 21 at the Durban International Convention Centre in South Africa.

Seven elite boxers Ukasha ‘Morocco’ Matovu, Wasswa ‘Black Skin’ Ssali, featherweight Kasim Murungi, welterweight Emily Nakalema, light welterweight Erina Namutebi, featherweight Sharua Ndagire and bantamweight Fatuma Nabikolo represented the country.

The bomber's medals came from Namutebi, the only boxer who reached the finals. She settled for silver, losing to DRC’s Merveille Mbamba Mbalayi in the final.

Other medallists include Matovu, the only male boxer to return home with a medal, Nakalema, Nabikolo, and Ndagire.

According to Muhangi, the team excelled.

“We took seven boxers to Durban and we have returned with five medals. To me the team’s performance was superb,” Muhangi said.

“If I’m to rate our performance, the team scored 71% which is a good result.”

But given the fact that of the five medalists, three punched their way to semi-finals after receiving byes, one may outreason Muhangi’s ratings putting into account neighbours DRC topped the medal table on ten gold medals with Kenya finishing with two gold as boxing minors Gabon and Lesotho.

Sh33m richer

Namutebi who is also a 2023 Africa Boxing Championship silver medalist reaped the most.

Her silver medal comes with $3,000 equivalent to sh11m that every losing finalist received.

Bronze medalists Matovu, Nabikolo, Ndagire, and Nakalema each received $1,500 in prize money equivalent to sh5.5m.

Muhangi refutes claims that the Federation is to tax some money off the boxers.

“The federation won’t get any percentage of the money each boxer received. Please take such claims as false news,” he said.

Since welterweight Muzamir Kakande clinched gold at the 2017 Africa boxing championship in Congo Brazzaville, the bombers have yet to win another competitive gold medal in the last seven years.

But one other area to note is that they have been losing to familiar foes.

Murungi who won bronze at this year’s Africa Games in Ghana, lost to Mozambique’s Armando Siguaque the third time in a row in a space of one year.

He lost to the same opponent at the 2023 Africa boxing championship in Yaounde before doing the same for a few weeks in Ghana.

Siguaque also defeated Murungi’s rival, Jonathan Kyobe at the 2022 Africa Boxing Championship on home soil.