Knock Out Algeria’s Nemouchi

Uganda’s Middleweight champion David Kavuma Ssemujju will have a lot to fight for when he makes his Olympics debut against a familiar opponent. Ssemujju steps into the ropes against Algerian Younes Nemouchi.

Meanwhile, the last bomber to go beyond their first bout at the Olympic games was Lightweight Sam Rukundo who managed the feat at the 2004 games in Athens with his journey coming to an end in the quarterfinal.

Ssemujju who was Uganda’s main hope in the Africa Olympic Qualifier games in Dakar Senegal lost the semifinal to Nemouchi 4-1.

Then, Nemouchi produced good backfoot boxing skills to overcome Ssemujju and hence all but ended his Olympics dream.

Ssemujju lost to the Algerian in semifinal bout of the African Olympic qualification campaign in Dakar last year and will be seeking for revenge when the two face off at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo at 12:18pm.

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This will be the third meeting between two top African seeds, Ssemujju defeated the Nemouchi at the All Africa games in Rabat in 2019 with the Algerian avenging in Dakar.

Ssemujju later had to play a box-off, which he lost against Cameroonian Dieudonne Wilfried Seyi Ntsengue by split decision 3-2.

His last chance was the Global Qualifiers in Paris which where later cancelled. The Ugandan had to secure a spot for the 2020 Olympic Games through the IOC Boxing Task Force thanks to his ranking.

Knock Out Algeria’s Nemouchi

Ssemujju is joint-fifth in the world Men’s middleweight (75kg) and second in Africa, with 300 points. Amazingly, he qualified because Nemouchi his opponent on Monday had already got his ticket to Tokyo

The Ugandan had failed to qualify directly after losing to Cameroonian Wilfried Nsengue on split decision (3.2) during a third place box-off in Dakar.

Uganda has seven medals at the global games, four of which are from boxing with John ‘The Beast’ Mugabi the last boxer to win an Olympic medal at the 1980 Games in Moscow.