FIJI’S super-lightweight champion Mikaele Ravalaca and his team have received public scrutiny after his loss at the International Boxing Association World Championships in Dubai over the weekend.
Ravalaca lost on a unanimous points decision to 19-year-old Zewdu Haymanot Desalegn from Ethiopia.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper coach Osea Nanovu has revealed that the young champion fought with an injured hand at the competition.
According to Nanovu, Ravalaca hid his injury and had opted to do his own preparations leading up to the championships.
Despite Nanovu’s best efforts to convince Ravalaca to withdraw from the competition, the boxer insisted on fighting.
With Ravalaca’s condition, Nanovu did his best to prepare him for his fight, but the injury was too much for him during his fight.
“I put a thick padding on his hand to help with the pain but in the first fifteen seconds of his fight when he threw an over-right punch to his opponent’s head that’s when it went worse.
“After that his arm went numb, that’s why he couldn’t perform well during the fight,” he said.
Nanovu adds that all was not lost during the trip as they have achieved their other primary motive, which was to get Fiji recognised once more with the International Boxing Association.
“They reason that we want Mika (Ravalaca) to come over is so that the IBA boxing body can be reinstated back in Fiji, at the moment the World Boxing Association is the only boxing body in Fiji, and it’s doesn’t pay its boxers properly, unlike IBA they pay the boxers very well.” Nanovu explained.
“With Mika as the lone representative of Fiji at the IBA championships Fiji can be recognised once more by IBA, that’s why we asked Mika to come, even if he was well and did not fight IBA will know that a representative from Fiji was present in their competition.”
Ravalaca’s participation at the 2025 IBA world championship marks his second appearance in the competition.
He made his championship debut in 2023.
