By Anesu Chakanetsa

OF late, boxing is hogging the limelight thanks to the exploits of the charismatic boxer Charles Manyuchi.
Wikipedia will tell you that Charles Manyuchi is a Zimbabwean professional boxer who is the WBC international welterweight champion since March 2014.
In November 2014, he successfully defended his WBC crown in a Lusaka, Zambia, fight against an opponent from Colombia. In 2014 he was awarded the Zimbabwe’s Sportsperson of the Year accolade. In July 2015, he successfully defended his crown against an Italian boxer in Friuli-Venezia Giula.
At one time the country boasted the likes of Langton ‘Schoolboy’ Tinago, Proud ‘Kilimanjaro’ Chinembiri, Mordecai Donga, Thamsanga Dube and Ambrose Mlilo.
But one of the most interesting characters in the country’s boxing fraternity is undoubtedly Alfonso Zvenyika.
He has seen it all; fame, fortune, misery and poverty.
The story of the Mosquito, as the tiny boxer who packed a mean punch was affectionately known, is one of ups and downs and continuing struggle.
Lately he seems to be back in the boxing groove, not as a fighter but an advocate for the sport.
Today, he is advocating discipline through teaching young people boxing and life skills at his Mosquito Boxing Academy in Mbare.
Born in 1975, Zvenyika grew up a fight-loving boy.
His love for fist-fighting saw his friends organising fights after school where bets were made.
He would win most of the fights.
Tiny as he is, he would floor opponents way bigger than him.
It was at that moment he realised he was a natural fighter and began moving towards amateur boxing.
It was also during the street fights that he got the name Mosquito; he was tiny but lethal.
Going down memory lane, Zvenyika says he was inspired by Martin Nyirenda.
“Nyirenda was a great fighter. I admired him a lot. He could have three fights in a day and win them all. Those days a boxer could face three opponents in a day,” said Zvenyika.
“I also got inspired by Ray “Sugar” Leonard, whom I watched a lot on television,” he said.
Alfonso Zvenyika became a professional boxer in 1993.
He lost his first fight against Trust Ndhlovu, one of the best fighters then.
“It was a painful fight but I got valuable lessons from it. I started to train a lot because my sponsors had lost hope in me,” he said.
From then on, Mosquito began to win a lot of bouts and attracted the attention of the corporate world.
In his career, he won 17 out of 32 matches, 10 of which were knockouts.
But his greatest moment came in 1998 in England when he defeated Paul Weir, a Scottish boxer, to earn the Commonwealth Light Flyweight Championship title.
It was not only about boxing, but being patriotic, recalled Zvenyika.
“When we came to the match, we realised we were only three black people in an arena that accommodated thousands of people, white people” he said.
“The British ,I realised then, sought to dominate Africans even in sport. I was determined to outclass their boxer.
“I was so good that instead of getting frustrated, the British fans started shouting my name in excitement. ‘Mosquito, Mosquito, Mosquito’, they chanted, and I soon found my hand being lifted, I was the new champion,” he said.
His greatest moment soon became a nightmare.
“When I was ready to defend my title, I got injured and lost my Commonwealth title to Ganyam Kelly,” he said.
After that, Mosquito ‘disappeared’ from the boxing scene, this was in 2006.
Outside boxing, Zvenyika began appearing in the media for the wrong reasons.
At one time, he was accused of stealing a radio.
Zvenyika said all these things were as a result of lack of knowledge and life skills.
“When you are young, you are tempted to do and try a lot of things, even the bad. Money is your only motivating factor and remaining in the fast lane,” he said.
After having fought more than 30 matches and getting paid for them all, the boxer blew it all.
“I’m a living testimony of a once highly productive individual who fell from grace, hitting the ground hard, but is now rising again,” he said.
“When people look at me, they see boxing, and they think it is a sport of indisciplined people, but that is changing,” he said.
Zvenyika’s boxing academy plans to produce wholesome boxers.
“I don’t only teach boxing skills at my gymnasium, but life skills; how to live a fruitful life as an individual, with your family, how to have productive relationships and more importantly, how to be an excellent boxer,” he said.
“I want these youth to have a sweet boxing life, not one full of regret of missed and wasted opportunities,” he said.
He, however, said serious marketing of the sport is required.
“There are many boxing loving youths, especially in the ghettos, in places like Mbare, but the sport is not attracting sponsors. I think we as boxers need to re-popularise the sport by having ‘street fights’ and reaching out to people,” said Zvenyika.
“People like to see attractive and fascinating things which could be brought about by safe, regulated ‘street fighting’. You would be surprised by the number of people eager to participate,” he said.
Zvenyika will have a road show in February 2017, to popularise the sport.
“The core of this roadshow is to tell people that boxing is not about violence but just an entertaining sport, which can rake in millions of dollars,” he said.
Contemporary society seems to be far removed from the idea of fighting for a living. With so much pentecostalism going on it seems people are shunning violence.
In the pre-colonial era, community fights were arranged as a form of entertainment.