All seemed like a fight of a lifetime; Ouma, a former world champion fighting for the first time on home soil against fast rising Kenyan star and former Africa Boxing Union super middleweight champion Okwiri in a 10-round non-title fight.
Why Kassim Ouma- Rayton Okwiri showed up BUT did not fight
The much anticipated ‘Rumble in Kampala’ did not come to pass as Uganda’s former IBF Junior Middleweight World Champion Kassim Ouma ‘The Dream’ and Kenya’s Rayton Okwiri did not fight on December 26 as advertised.
The fight that never was
The boxers had a heated weigh-in event that almost broke into a fight after Okwiri held Ouma by the neck and promised to crush him. Ouma would also retaliate before they were separated.
To add more glitz to the fight, Ouma with his commanding social capital had got a number of public figures especially musicians and politicians including National Unity Platform president Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine not only to attend but to also drum up the hype for the fight.
However, according to sources, the promoter failed the boxers and rejected to pay the boxers before the fight as earlier agreed.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The much-awaited fight between Rayton Okwiri and Kassim Ouma did not take place after the Ugandan promoter Steve Sembuya failed to pay the boxers before the bout as agreed. Okwiri had spent 2 months preparing for this fight. It's disappointing”, Carol Radull, a Kenyan journalist explained.
“I had spent two months preparing for this fight. It is so disappointing,” Okwiri lamented.
Ouma held the IBF junior middleweight title from 2004 to 2005, and has challenged twice for a world middleweight title in 2006 and 2011.
ADVERTISEMENT
More from category
-
Equator Rally 2023: Who Will Conquer Africa's Toughest Terrain?
-
The January transfer madness
-
Messi opens up on regretting various World Cup actions