Boniface Mogunde lands a straight right on Merven Clair of Mauritius during a light middleweight bout in the Africa Boxing Championship in Yaounde, Cameroon/HANDOUTThe anger made sense. He had boxed with purpose. He had controlled the tempo. When the final bell rang, Mogunde believed the fight was his.
Then the scorecards were read. A 1:4 split decision. Loss. Just like that, the night was taken from him.
Competing in the men’s light middleweight round of 32 at the IBA World Boxing Championships, the Kenyan Hit Squad captain was sent home early after the judges sided with world No.7 Aliyev Sarkhan of Azerbaijan.
The decision landed with a thud — not just on Mogunde, but on a Kenyan boxing community that had seen this movie before.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Mogunde said. “I felt like the fight slipped out of my hands without any explanation.”
Inside the ropes, the story looked different.
Mogunde pressed the action, snapping Sarkhan’s head back with sharp jabs and forcing the Azerbaijani into retreat. He cut the ring. He dictated the rhythm. Sarkhan countered in flashes, but rarely took control.
It was close. Competitive. The kind of fight that should reward command and clarity.
“I was landing the cleaner shots,” Mogunde said. “I was controlling the pace. That’s boxing.”
Four judges saw something else.
When the referee raised Sarkhan’s hand, disbelief rippled through the arena. Mogunde stared ahead, expression tight, absorbing the verdict in silence.
The fire spread quickly.
Within hours, video clips of the bout flooded Facebook, WhatsApp, and boxing forums back home in Kenya. Fans slowed the footage. Replayed exchanges. Counted punches.
The verdict did not hold up.
“People were angry,” Mogunde said. “Not just because I lost, but because they felt it wasn’t right.”
The word “robbed” surfaced again and again, echoing through comment sections and group chats. For many, the scorecards felt disconnected from reality.
For Kenyan boxing, the pain felt familiar.
In April 2022, Mogunde and his teammates walked out of the Zone 3 Boxing Championships in Kinshasa with similar grievances. Officials cited blatant breaches of technical and competition rules. Protests were filed. Answers never came.
Two years later, Team Kenya captain Elizabeth Andiego lost the African Boxing Championships final on a split decision that sparked another wave of outrage.
“We keep reliving the same moment,” Mogunde said. “Different cities. Same feeling.”
The pattern has eroded trust. Not in opponents, but in the system meant to protect the sport.
As Hit Squad captain, Mogunde felt silence was no longer an option.
“This isn’t about emotions,” he said. “It’s about integrity.”
He stopped short of accusing judges of bias, but his message was unmistakable.
“When decisions don’t match the action, boxing loses credibility,” Mogunde said. “Fighters lose faith.”
He called for transparent scoring, accountability for officials, and independent reviews at major tournaments.
“We can’t keep pretending this doesn’t happen,” he added.
Mogunde was careful not to aim his frustration at Sarkhan.
“He’s a good boxer,” he said. “He didn’t cheat. He did his job.”
The fight, Mogunde insisted, was never the problem. “The judging was.”
In elite amateur boxing, where margins are razor-thin, a single scorecard can erase years of preparation. Mogunde knows that reality all too well.
However, he plans to return to camp in January, carrying both anger and resolve into the gym.
“This hurts,” he admitted. “But it also fuels me.”
There was no talk of quitting. No retreat into bitterness.
“Every fighter gets tested,” Mogunde said. “This is my test.”
For now, Mogunde has become the voice of a deeper frustration.
“If we don’t speak now, we’ll be having this same conversation again,” he said.
The record books will show a loss. The brackets will show Sarkhan advancing.
But December 2025 in Dubai will be remembered for something else.
A fighter left the ring believing the truth had been bent.
Mogunde did not just lose a decision. He lost faith in the process — and in doing so, exposed a crack that boxing can no longer afford to ignore.
“I’ll be back,” he said quietly. “And next time, they’ll have no choice.”
