Matumla named Tanzania's top professional boxer in history

Dar es Salaam. A boxing icon in the country, Rashid Matumla, has been named the top boxer of all time since he retired from the sport in August, 2013.

BoxRec, a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, named the former super-welterweight champion of the World Boxing Union (WBU) in the top position while seven others being named on a list of ten greatest boxers in the country.

The list has three boxers of the current generation led by Hassan Mwakinyo, who holds the third slot with 14.32 points scored in 2015 when he joined boxing. Mwakinyo is left behind by five points by Matumla or Snake Man, who has 19.13 points scored 20 years ago from 1993 when the latter joined professional boxing.

Another boxing icon, Rogers Mtagwa, who lives in the US, has been named in the second position, scoring 17.52 points that have never been reached by any other boxer in the country since he retired from the sport in 2014.

Joseph Marwa, who hanged up his boxing gloves in the same year with Matumla, has been named in the fourth position with 13.27 points and is followed by Ibrahim Class Mgender, who is expected to step into the ring next month in the City of Dar es Salaam. The former super middleweight champion of the World Boxing Federation (WBF), Francis Cheka, who is yet to step into the ring since 2018, has been named in the sixth position with 7.390 points and is followed by Francis Miyeyusho who scored 7.012 points.

Mbwana Matumla, who retired from boxing in 2017, holds the eighth position with 6.781 points and is followed by Mambea Bakari in the ninth position with 6.759 points after hanging up his boxing gloves 20 years ago.

Anthony Mathias completes the list of the 10 top boxers of all time in Tanzania with 6.367 points given by BoxRec.