18 Mar 2024

Despite losing his bout, Botswana pugilist, Kobamelo ‘Facebook’ Molatlhegi gave his DRC’s opponent Livens Tulebekwa a good fight on Sunday during the 13^th African Games held in Accra, Ghana.

Though Tulebekwa had an upper hand from the first round of the 46-48kg bout, Facebook came back better in the second round, firing from all angels.

Although some boxing enthusiasts had thought the local lad will continue with his aggressiveness in the last round, that was not the case, as his opponent claimed the third round to end the bout with a wide margin of 4-1.

In an interview, Molatlhegi said his opponents took him out of focus as he resorted to foul punches at the back of his head.

“So I had to protect myself by going down, but I received counts from referee, had I not protected myself, I think I could have picked a serious injury, or he could have knocked me out,” he said.

Molatlhegi said lesson learnt from his fight, include being more aggressive, given that he tried to be ‘clean’ technically but it did not work for him. National team coach, Thebe Setlalekgosi said the boxer had lost the bout that he could have easily won, but he resorted to complain that his opponent was beating him at the back if the head.

“This is boxing, you get beaten, he lost the bout with that two counts from the referee, the minute the referee count, you lose that round,” he said.

According to Setlalekgosi, he was of the view that the two counts cost the local lad a clear victory.

“There are only three rounds, if you get counted twice, then you have automatically lost, there is no coming back,” he said.

The 2019 African Games 52kg flyweight champion, Rajab Mahommed lost to Fabrice Valerie of Mauritius on Saturday after the referee stopped the bout due to an injury.

In tennis doubles, Chelsea Chakakunya and Kelebogile Monnayoo lost 6-2, 6-7, 10-2 to Rufaro Magarira and Sasha Chimendza of Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, 3x3 basketball will start their competition against Kenya, which will be then by their encounter with Zambia today.