Special One to face The Alligator 

Flame ‘Special One’ Nangolo will defend his WBO Africa Super Featherweight title against Martin “The Alligator” Mukungu in Windhoek on 30 May. 

Nangolo, who is still unbeaten after 14 professional fights was originally due to fight Tinashe Mwadziwane of Zimbabwe, but at a press conference in Windhoek yesterday, Imms Moses of AC Promotions said that the Mwadziwane fight did not materialise. 

“Special One was scheduled to fight Tinashe, but Tinashe was also scheduled to fight last weekend which we didnt know about, and then the WBO was also doubting his record, but like I said before, Tinashe was never really our option,” he said. 

Nangolo will now take on Mukungu, who has a record of 13 wins, including eight knockouts, and two losses – both of which came via knockout. In his second pro fight in 2020 he lost on a third round technical knockout to Fillipus ‘Energy’ Nghitumbwa, while his second defeat was a fourth round TKO against Lineekela Nghifindaka two years later. 

Since then, though, he has won his last six fights in a row, with five coming via KO or TKO. 

At yesterday’s press conference, however, Namibia’s former WBO Global Super Featherweight champion Jeremiah Nakathila seemed to be more in the spotlight than Mukungu.

Nakathila, who recently announced his retirement, was seated next to Mukungu, who introduced him as a sponsor and supporter, but Nangolo claimed that Nakathila had avoided fighting him. 

“I dont know who I’ll be fighting because Ive got two opponents right there, and I dont know which one will step up on the night. I want both of them on the same night – I think Ill start with the big one and end with the little one. 

This is just another fight for me, Ive been here before so its nothing new to me. I’m just ready to step in the ring and do what I always do and that’s the special treatment and thats what you can expect from me,” he said. 

Mukungu, meanwhile, thanked AC Promotions for the opportunity.

“For me this is a big fight, because Ill become the first Kavango fighting for a WBO Africa title, so let me become the new WBO Africa champion. Flame Nangolo is a good boxer but he is not good enough for the alligator. The river is my home and the ring is my place, it’s where I was born. So come and look as special as you like, but bro’ it’s not going to look special on the 30th of May,” he said. 

Mukungu also scoffed at Nangolo’s attempts to fight Nakathila. 

“Lowkey is a retired boxer now but he is still in his prime and you dont want to fight someone who fought bigger fights than you – you wont be able to pay Lowkey, how much have you got?

Moses, meanwhile, added fuel to the fire, saying that Nakathila had avoided fighting Nangolo. 

“I remember one day Lowkey whatsapped me and said can we make a fight against Special One, so I asked him how much do you wan. He said N$80 000 so I said I’ll give you 100, but then later they had another story, and also in fact Lowkey retired on Sunday but he came back on Monday, so theres a lot of miscommunication from that camp, it’s very confusing,” he said. 

Moses was also upset by the absence of Mukungu and Nakathila’s promoter Nestor Tobias.

“I’m very disappointed in him because I’ve been back and forth with him trying to make this fight happen, but he chickened out and didn’t come to the press conference. He demanded a lot of money after I gave him an offer, but he just downplayed his fighter by sending him alone to the press conference. That shows his lack of confidence, if he doesnt show up it means that he doesnt have faith in his boxer,” he said. 

“But now Im happy that we made this fight,. Although I know that they are sacrificing Mukungu. They did it before when they put him in with Energy who knocked him out – don’t worry about his eight knockout wins, worry about how many times he was knocked out and didnt make it. This time arond hes going to get a beating and I just want to make sure that everybody comes to watch the fight,” he said. 

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