- Former WBC champion Fatuma Zarika wants another title before calling time on her career.
- Zarika made a comeback to the ring on Friday, April 3, competing in the women’s super-featherweight division at the SportPesa Boxing Night.
- She defeated Tanzanian International Flora Machela, as the 41-year-old insists she wants a title before hanging up her gloves.
Former WBC world champion Fatuma Zarika says she is not ready to hang up her gloves yet, insisting she wants one more shot at a title before calling time on her career.
Fatuma made her comeback to the ring on Friday, April 3, when she entered the Women’s Super-Featherweight division at the SportPesa Boxing Night, where she managed to beat Flora Machela of Tanzania in a non-title bout staged at the Edge Convention Center in Nairobi.
Despite it not being a title fight as she tries to reinvent herself, the Iron Fist–as many call her–managed to boost her victories to 35 and knockouts throughout her career since 2003 to 19, while maintaining a 14-loss record.
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Former WBC champion Fatuma Zarika eyes one last title before hanging up her gloves
Speaking after the match, Zarika, who held the WBC World Female Super-Bantamweight Champion title from 2016 to 2019, stated that her next ambition is to fight for a belt, something still on her radar and UFS BXNG promoter Maurice has already started planning for that.
She is hoping to compete for one before beginning to think of retiring.
“I think next, promoter Maurice is planning something, and the title is coming. I believe it’s not later than this year. All I want is the championship so that I can think about retiring,” Zarika said after beating the Tanzanian pro, Machela.
Zarika, at 41, states that although the version of her who was winning belts is no longer present in her body, she believes with practice she can regain her former speed and creativity, and she is aiming for the title as well.
“I would say the Zarika who won the WBC and the Zarika who fought tonight are two different people. This is because I had stayed for a while without being in the ring. In my active era, I was laying down matches very often, but now it’s just happening once in a while. I think as much as those are two different people, the more I keep on fighting again, the more I revive my best self.”
All the former WBF Intercontinental Female Super-Featherweight champion wants is to hang up the gloves as a champion, and she has promised to do so.
“I want to hang up the gloves knowing very well I’m still a champion, and that is all I want. All I need to improve on is to practice more and return to my previous ways of doing things, like going to international camps and knowing how things are done. It’s not all about age, but training well,” she stated.
Fatuma Zarika’s comeback to the ring is all thanks to the initiative through UFS BXNG under Maurice, but more importantly boosted by the leading online gaming firm SportPesa, who have given boxing in Kenya a lift through a 40 million sponsorship deal.
April 3 marked the first edition of the SportPesa Boxing Night, with many more set to come.