Chilemba hangs up his gloves owing to injuries

The illustrious career of Africa's accomplished yet unheralded boxer Isaac “Golden Boy” Chilemba has ended.

The former ABU super-middleweight, WBO Africa, WBC International, ABU and North American Boxing Federation light-heavyweight titlist had a successful career which began under trainer Nick “Mthakathi” Durandt in 2005.

Chilemba, who turned 40 last week, is from Blantyre in Malawi but has lived his whole life in SA.

Chilemba would carry both the South African and Malawian national flags. The decision to quit, he said, was informed by injuries.

“I have suffered lots of injuries... cracked ribs. I fought with a cracked rib for 15 years and the only solution was to go for surgery to remove those pieces and allow it to heal or quit,” he said.

“I continued fighting with it and every time I got in there I felt severe pains. I had to think of how to defend that injured side. I am losing eyesight, my elbow at some point was so sore that it would not allow me to move my arm. My whole body is breaking down.

“I also cannot keep up with young fighters; actually I retired in February but I got an offer to face Aleksei Papin in a cruiserweight bout in Russia two weeks ago,” he said.

Chilemba said he could not allow his ego to fool him. “My body can no longer take it,” he said.

“Look, there are no regrets, I had a good career with ups and downs, I appreciated every moment I went through, made some good money although our hands as fighters have holes, and that include going in and out of courts.”

The loss two weeks ago was his only second stoppage loss in 10 losses. He chalked up 27 wins with 11 knockouts and three draws.

Chilemba had a number of boxing with top name dance partners that includes Thomas Oosthuizen, Tony Bellew (retired former WBC cruiserweight champ) and former WBA, IBF and WBO light-heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev (twice each) and Dmitry Bivol (current WBA and IBO light-heavyweight champ).