Kyalami Fight Club’s Charles Mabunda has trained professional boxers for the last eight years
KYALAMI – Local professional boxing trainer says the sport has taken a hit in recent years.
Being a trainer of professional boxers requires its own set of skills to earn respect from the men and women who actually wear the gloves.
For Charles Mabunda, a passion for boxing has given him every tool he needed since he started training amateurs in 2007, and then training professionals in 2010.
The Kyalami Fight Club trainer first made it as a professional boxer and fought under trainer Gert Strydom in the early 2000s before a dislocated shoulder ended his career.
Mabunda said boxing empowered one to not only become a fit and strong person but a disciplined and better person too.
“I do miss fighting but I have never thought of giving up,” he smiled.
“I like boxing too much.”
It was for this reason Mabunda worked as an assistant trainer to Elias Tshabalala in Glenhazel before he went into training on his own.
In the past 11 years, he has trained Tsiko Mulovhedzi, a former International Boxing Organisation world champion; Julie Tshabalala, a former South African champion; Huwbulani Netshamchezi, a former World Boxing Federation champion, and Mapule Ngubani.
He currently has eight pro boxers and a string of amateurs under his wing.
“I like to look like my boxers. They look good and are fit and when people see me they think I am still boxing.”
According to Mabunda boxing has taken a hit in recent years with incidents of corruption and throwing fights.
“There are not enough sponsors in boxing now and boxers do not take the sport very seriously because there is not much money in it.”
Yet his passion for the sport has not waned and he aims to keep doing what he can for the sport he loves.
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