Commonwealth bronze medallists Juma Kaggwa and Mike Ssekabembe stand a better opportunity of joining the World Boxing Series (WBS) paid ranks.
The pair, who bagged bronze medals at the recent Commonwealth Games in Scotland, are among the boxers endorsed by the Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) for consideration for semi-professional ranks.
Kaggwa bagged bronze in the flyweight category while Ssekabembe snatched a similar medal in the heavyweight bracket.
Prior to that, Uganda’s last Commonwealth boxing medal was in 2006 when bantam Martin Mubiru won bronze in the Melbourne Games in Australia.
According to Uganda UBF president Kenneth Gimugu, the WBS offers many opportunities.
“We have entered many boxers with the world body, hopefully a good number will benefit from this programme. Our only challenge is getting video footage,” he said.
The world body is expected to announce boxers who meet the grade by October 12. Successful boxers will be taken up by international boxing
cartels that will cater for their travel costs to international engagements.
AIBA introduced the semi-professional ranks five years ago in a bid to maintain the top cream of boxers in their ranks. Boxers in the series will also take part in the Olympics starting with the Rio Games.
By Samson Opus, The New Vision