Why Tanzania’s boxer nose-dived in world ranking
Tanzanian boxer Hassan Mwakinyo (left) during his fight against England’s Sam Eggington at the Birmingham Arena, United Kingdom, in 2018. He made tremendous strides after registering a technical knock-out (TKO) over the Briton. photo | file
What you need to know:
Mwakinyo, who made tremendous strides after registering a technical knock-out win against England’s Sam Eggington at the Birmingham Arena, is now ranked 86th in the world
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s highly-rated professional boxer Hassan Mwakinyo has dropped 62 places in the world rankings.
He is now ranked 86th in the super welterweight category, according to the latest rankings released yesterday by Boxrec – a website dedicated to holding records of professional boxers.
This comes at a time when the Tanga-based boxer is fine-tuning ahead of his fight against Jack Culcay in Germany.
The World Boxing Organisation (WBO) super welterweight bout was to take place last month, but was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Mwakinyo, who was placed 24th before yesterday’s rankings, has managed to have 5.367 points.
According to the latest rankings, Culcay’s fans also had nothing to cheer about yesterday as the German has dropped seven places in the world.
Culcay, who held the World Boxing Association (WBA) interim super welterweight title between 2015 and 2017, is now ranked seventh.
In 2018, Mwakinyo, the talented but humble boxer, made tremendous strides after registering a technical knock-out (TKO) win against England’s Sam Eggington at the Birmingham Arena.
The convincing victory powered the then 23-year-old boxer into 16th out of 1,845 super welterweight boxers.
Currently, Eggington is ranked 32nd in the world with 16.51 points.
Mwakinyo’s last fight was against Filipino boxer Arnel Tinampay in November, last year.
The bout took place at the Uhuru Stadium, where the Tanzanian boxer won on points.
The rankings show that American boxer Jermell Charlo tops the super welterweight division with 188 points.
He is followed by fellow American Erislandy Lara who has amassed 144.6 points, while Briton Kell Brook sits third with 104 points.
A number of boxing officials, including Emmanuel Mlundwa, said yesterday that Mwakinyo has to take on world class boxers if he is to regain his dented glory.
“His last three or so fights were non-title bouts. He has to face elite boxers in high-profile fights if he wants to move up the ladder in the world rankings,” said Mlundwa.
