Opinion by Nigel Pfunde
She is beautiful,that is no secret!
I am not usually one person who is star struck but she hit me like a lightning bolt manufactured in juju infested Chipinge area located in Manicaland province.
Her government name is Kuda Chiwandire but known by her moniker Take Money.
I do not dispute the beauty evidenced by her facial morphology and slender built that can easily pass her off as a model strutting her stuff on the ramp .
On the first glance, she looks like a harmless lover not a fighter, but she is the WBC boxing champ!
Just the few minutes discourse I had with
her at Zororo Phumulani powered by Doves Zimbabwe headquarters on Monday, made me realise that she is both a lover and a fighter.
She doesn’t only fight in the ring but she is a fighter for the girl child and ghetto people mediator.
She has fought hard to reach the orgasm of her career after facing trials and tribulations which saw her chucked out of school after she got pregnant at the age of 17.
From what I read in our conversation, that unplanned pregnancy prompted her to challenge the seemingly phallocentric and developed the balls to start playing soccer and kick boxing.
“I lost my child after one year and I started playing female soccer and then turned to kick boxing.
“My road was not easy but I thank God for taking me where I am now and the support I am getting from Government and the nation at large,” she said .
Take Money has reached a level where she is literally taking the money and made US$72 000 in her latest victorious night where she defeated her Mexican opponent in a 10 rounds bout.
I asked her about her love life and she kept it a strongly guarded secret but categorically stated that she was not married.
I joked with her that the lucky guy in her life must make sure that he doesn’t step on her toes lest he might get a rain of fists.
Her upbringing was not rosy as she was raised by earnings from his father , who was a vendor.
She has used part of her rich pickings to further construction of their Dzivarasekwa Extension house.
Let me digress.
She reminds me of Laila Ali, the daughter to the legendary fighter Cassius Clay who later adopted the name Mahhomed Ali.
Its allowed, even my good brother and friend Ian Mudiwa Mutandwa changed to Mudiwa Hood and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s twin sons also changed their names to Sean and Collins dumping their Shona names Takunda and Tafadzwa.(May they be comforted on the loss of their son Mafidi whose pictures I saw showed the vigour and future he had!)
Well, Laila’s dad was a champ in the ring.
He would ‘fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee’.
In contrast, Take Money’ s dad fought hard knock out (KO) poverty and eke a living to raise a champ!
Take Money made her professional debut in 2015, scoring a four-round unanimous decision (UD) victory against Barbara Banda at the National Sports Development Centre in Lusaka, Zambia.
After compiling a record of 4–2–1 (4 KOs), she defeated former world champion Catherine Phiri via split decision (SD) over ten rounds, capturing the vacant WBC female interim super-bantamweight title on February 26 2022, at the Government Complex in Lusaka.
It was such a beauty meeting this beast on the ring and my hope is she inspires many other young women.
Delta force, camp must also get credit and my prayer is they wont pull a Chuck Norris and hit her to bankruptcy like what that grey haired promoter Don King did to Mike Tyson.
In football, Winston Makamure almost also pulled a fast one on my favourite footballer Peter Ndlovu the Flying Elephant.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
