With 2012 close, not round the corner quite yet, but close, there is inevitably a lot of talk about which lucky eleven are going to be wearing a British vests. Some of the predictions have been thoughtful, others wild, but there are a handful of boxers around the country that are regularly mentioned. One of these boxers is London’s very own Obed Mbwakongo.

Mbwakongo, who boxes out of the Lynn, comes from a family of boxers, his younger brother Chris is a talented Junior Champion and older brother Elvis is an unbeaten pro with an excellent amateur pedigree. But it was Obeds dad who got him to put on a pair of gloves for the first time. "I got into boxing because I had stopped playing football after I got a bit fat and was just hanging around the house. My dad didn't want me at home all the time and Elvis was boxing so I went along,"

In doing so, 'Dad', a cab driver from Lewisham, helped unleash one of London’s most promising boxing talents since James Degale.

However, the road hasn’t been easy for Obed, after loosing two of his earliest fights he admitted that he “didn’t like boxing much”. But soon he was soaring his way up the amateur rankings with wins in the Junior ABAs Class B Championship in May 2005 and the Federation of Clubs for Young People, Class B National Championships in December that year.

Major titles then followed with victories in the Junior Class A and most significantly the 2007 Senior ABAs, and after a bronze in the World Cadets and Juniors Championships in Liverpool Obed received a place in the British Boxing Squad.

Mbwakongo is currently ranked 5 th by Boxing News in the Four Nations Ratings. This relatively low ranking is deceiving when considering that above him are two boxers of Swedish and Hungarian nationality respectively (both box for London clubs), an Irishman and Britain’s Beijing hopeful Tony Jefferies (who will probably have turned pro by the time you read this article). It is without doubt that if Obed didn’t have such a poor end to last season, that finished with 4 straight defeats (with perhaps the most significant defeat coming in the London ABA finals against rival Istcan Szucs), he would be higher in the Four Nation Rankings.

Obeds defeat against Istvan Szucs in April was the cause of much controversy at the time. Many people were shocked by his early exit; his own local paper ran the sports headline ‘Obed Shock Loss As He Crashes Out of

ABAs’. Fingers were soon pointing in all directions and the
forums of Warrior were buzzing with theories. A popular thought was that it was Obed’s move from his boyhood club Fischer to the Lynn, in early 2008, which caused this sudden drop of form that ultimately resulted in his loss to the Hungarian Szucs.

Obeds coach Sam Mullins was quick to deny that the switch had anything to do with his loss. In fact Mullins didn’t even think that Obed had lost, declaring a few days after the bout “to be honest I thought he’d nicked it – but he did just have a bad day at the office”.

Mullins was at the centre of the controversy surrounding Obed last season. It was his move as a coach from Fisher Downside to the Lynn that caused Obed to change clubs. This however was not Mullins doing, who when moving clubs made no suggestion to Obed or the other half dozen boxers that joined him that they too should move. Despite Mullins innocence in the whole affair, this shifting of boxers didn’t go down well amongst some and could well have caused the first whisper that Obeds move was the origin of his drop in form.

Obed's brother Elvis had a different opinion as to why his brother lost the London Final. Elvis claimed that it was his training that he had undertaken prior to the bout that caused his rather lacklustre performance, declaring: "He has been training as an 88kg fighter and he fought at 81kg. I think he has been starving himself to get down to 81kg and because of that he was weak. When you lose that much weight in a certain time you won't be able to box in the ring. He boxed well for the first two rounds and after that he was dead - he had nothing in the tank."

Whilst both these factors may well have played there part, what seemed to be largely ignored at the time of Obeds exit was that he was boxing a man of great experience and international pedigree in Istvan Szucs. It seems strange that many seemed unaware or were simply ignoring the fact that Szucs (who went on to win the ABAs) had already competed in over 200 bouts prior to the London Finals. Mullins, who I spoke to recently, had clearly reflected on Obeds loss and without encouragement bought up this very point. “Ultimately the Hungarian was a top quality opponent, there was no shame in losing to a boy of that standard. Its amateur boxing, losing happens”.

I would be inclined to agree with Mullins reflection. Though I would be hard pressed to deny that Obeds performance at the London ABAs was poor, he is still very young and days like that serve to improve a boxer just as much as a victory would. We only have to look at David Hayes loss to Carl Thompson to know this is true. Given, this was in the pros, but it’s no less applicable.

Obed has a long way to go until 2012 and previous performances dictate that if he fulfils his potential Olympic glory may beckon. He has an excellent coach in Mullins and also top class facilities and training with the elite and development squad in Sheffield, not to mention additional coaching from the likes of Terry Edwards, David Saddler etc… Let’s just hope that Obed begins the 2008-09 season a little better then he ended the last.

I’m sure he will.

Article by Stefan Johnson