Tobias carves future for Namibian pro boxers

WINDHOEK – He grew up wanting to be a soccer player or a karate kid due to the many Bruce Lee films that he had seen, but it was the boxing bug that bit Edundja-born Nestor Tobias.

He has since developed from a national boxing champion to a successful boxing coach, manager and promoter. After retiring in 2000 from an ‘unlucky’ boxing career spanning seven years, Tobias took up coaching and promoting and his stable boasts some of the best professional boxers in the country.These include the likes of double champion Paulus ‘The Hitman’ Moses training under him at his Nestor ‘Sunshine’ Tobias Boxing Academy at the Katutura Youth complex.Tobias helped Moses win and retain his WBA Inter-continental lightweight title and WBA Pan African lightweight title on a number of occasions.Moses is also now ranked first and is the mandatory challenger for the vacant world lightweight title.Other top boxers that Tobias helped to put in the limelight are current WBA Pan-African welterweight champion Jason Naule, former WBA Pan-African welterweight champion Frans Hantindi, while Tobias also had a hand in the success of current Commonwealth Champion, Namibia’s Paulus Nuumbembe.However, Tobias described his own career as a boxer as unlucky, and only now feels lucky as a coach and promoter.Although he worked very hard as a professional boxer, having won 16 out of 19 fights with only three defeats, Tobias said he was unlucky because he could never go for a world title.Tobias relayed how in 1988, he could not fight internationally because of political sanctions against South Africa and after that, he lost out on a place at the 1992 Olympic Games due to an undue suspension in 1991.And when he got a chance to go for the IBO world title in 1999, he injured his shoulder.That was when he called it quits.But all those trials and tribulations have made him a very tough man and a good coach and boxing promoter, he said.He recalled the life as a boxer in Johannesburg as very hard.Tobias lived with his best friend at the time former world champion Harry Simon, who also went pro at the same time.Many times they slept outside during the freezing winter when they did not have money to pay rent.They also did not have much food to eat, but they stuck it out.”Sometimes I was wondering why I left a nice paying job at CDM (Consolidated Diamond Mines) to sleep rough in SA,” Tobias recalled.Tobias grew up without a father and most times went to school on a hungry stomach.All this made him a very tough man, he said.When he retired in 2000, his aim was to be the first promoter in Namibia and he got his licence from the Namibia Professional Boxing and Wrestling Control Board in 2001.He promoted his first fight in the same year in which Hantindi beat Zimbabwean Farai Kachighwada for the WBA Pan-African title in Windhoek.But he felt more comfortable coaching and managing, and with his sports administration and coaching certificates obtained during his years at CDM, he continued with that.Tobias’ first boxers were Nuumbembe, Hantindi and Siegfried Kaperu.Leonard Phillipus followed and so did the Hitman, Naule and Vikapita Meroro amongst many others.He now coaches 60 boxers of which nine are professional, while 25 boxers fight under his promotion.Hitman is to date his most successful boxer who is currently ranked first in the world lightweight rankings and the mandatory challenger for the vacant world title.”But all of my boxers are world champion material,” he added.But boxing promotion is not easy, Tobias said, because it requires large amounts of money.Currently he is one of 10 registered promoters in Namibia but he is the most active.His biggest international promotion was when he set up the fight between The Hitman and Romanian Mihaita Mutu for the WBA Intercontinental lightweight title in Windhoek late last year.Promoting requires hard work, a lot of time and patience, Tobias said, adding that although it took long for him (since he received his licence in 2001), one can be successful in a short time.Tobias said that he loves the game and doesn’t want it to die.Asked if promoting is financially rewarding, Tobias said it could be if the NBC starts paying for TV rights like in other countries.”They either don’t want to, thinking it is national sport or because they don’t understand how professional sport works.”With his boxers doing so well, they are putting Namibia in the spotlight and some people just don’t see the potential, he said.”We boxers actually do a lot to bring attention to Namibia and although it is slow, we are trying.People have to look at the bigger picture of how they can help the nation as well as Namibian sport.””So if the private sector does not want to put in money for development, Namibia can not go very far”, Tobias said.He thanked companies like NamPower, Telecom, Windhoek Country Club and resort, Swakopmund Entertainment Centre, Air Namibia and the Boxing and Wrestling Control Board, who help tremendously to develop sport in the country.NampaAfter retiring in 2000 from an ‘unlucky’ boxing career spanning seven years, Tobias took up coaching and promoting and his stable boasts some of the best professional boxers in the country.These include the likes of double champion Paulus ‘The Hitman’ Moses training under him at his Nestor ‘Sunshine’ Tobias Boxing Academy at the Katutura Youth complex.Tobias helped Moses win and retain his WBA Inter-continental lightweight title and WBA Pan African lightweight title on a number of occasions.Moses is also now ranked first and is the mandatory challenger for the vacant world lightweight title.Other top boxers that Tobias helped to put in the limelight are current WBA Pan-African welterweight champion Jason Naule, former WBA Pan-African welterweight champion Frans Hantindi, while Tobias also had a hand in the success of current Commonwealth Champion, Namibia’s Paulus Nuumbembe.However, Tobias described his own career as a boxer as unlucky, and only now feels lucky as a coach and promoter.Although he worked very hard as a professional boxer, having won 16 out of 19 fights with only three defeats, Tobias said he was unlucky because he could never go for a world title.Tobias relayed how in 1988, he could not fight internationally because of political sanctions against South Africa and after that, he lost out on a place at the 1992 Olympic Games due to an undue suspension in 1991.And when he got a chance to go for the IBO world title in 1999, he injured his shoulder.That was when he called it quits.But all those trials and tribulations have made him a very tough man and a good coach and boxing promoter, he said.He recalled the life as a boxer in Johannesburg as very hard.Tobias lived with his best friend at the time former world champion Harry Simon, who also went pro at the same time.Many times they slept outside during the freezing winter when they did not have money to pay rent.They also did not have much food to eat, but they stuck it out.”Sometimes I was wondering why I left a nice paying job at CDM (Consolidated Diamond Mines) to sleep rough in SA,” Tobias recalled.Tobias grew up without a father and most times went to school on a hungry stomach.All this made him a very tough man, he said.When he retired in 2000, his aim was to be the first promoter in Namibia and he got his licence from the Namibia Professional Boxing and Wrestling Control Board in 2001.He promoted his first fight in the same year in which Hantindi beat Zimbabwean Farai Kachighwada for the WBA Pan-African title in Windhoek.But he felt more comfortable coaching and managing, and with his sports administration and coaching certificates obtained during his years at CDM, he continued with that.Tobias’ first boxers were Nuumbembe, Hantindi and Siegfried Kaperu.Leonard Phillipus followed and so did the Hitman, Naule and Vikapita Meroro amongst many others.He now coaches 60 boxers of which nine are professional, while 25 boxers fight under his promotion.Hitman is to date his most successful boxer who is currently ranked first in the world lightweight rankings and the mandatory challenger for the vacant world title.”But all of my boxers are world champion material,” he added.But boxing promotion is not easy, Tobias said, because it requires large amounts of money.Currently he is one of 10 registered promoters in Namibia but he is the most active.His biggest international promotion was when he set up the fight between The Hitman and Romanian Mihaita Mutu for the WBA Intercontinental lightweight title in Windhoek late last year.Promoting requires hard work, a lot of time and patience, Tobias said, adding that although it took long for him (since he received his licence in 2001), one can be successful in a short time.Tobias said that he loves the game and doesn’t want it to die.Asked if promoting is financially rewarding, Tobias said it could be if the NBC starts paying for TV rights like in other countries.”They either don’t want to, thinking it is national sport or because they don’t understand how professional sport works.”With his boxers doing so well, they are putting Namibia in the spotlight and some people just don’t see the potential, he said.”We boxers actually do a lot to bring attention to Namibia and although it is slow, we are trying.People have to look at the bigger picture of how they can help the nation as well as Namibian sport.””So if the private sector does not want to put in money for development, Namibia can not go very far”, Tobias said.He thanked companies like NamPower, Telecom, Windhoek Country Club and resort, Swakopmund Entertainment Centre, Air Namibia and the Boxing and Wrestling Control Board, who help tremendously to develop sport in the country.Nampa