Former World Bantamweight Champion (WBC) Catherine Phiri will challenge current champion Fatuma Zareka for the title in Nairobi on March 23, Oriental Querries Boxing promotion manager Christopher Malunga announced yesterday.

Phiri lost the WBC title in 2017 to 37-year-old Marian Juarez on unanimous points to surrender the belt to the Mexican.

But Malunga told journalists during a press briefing in Lusaka that Phiri, who camped yesterday in preparation for the bout, is looking forward to defeating the Kenyan international and re-possessing the title.

“Straight away, I will go into Cathy’s situation and I think a lot of people have been trying to call me to find out what’s next for the champ. I’m happy to announce that Catherine Phiri will fight Fatuma Zarika on the 23rd of March in Nairobi. This date has been confirmed by Fatuma’s camp for the BBC, so we are looking forward to that camp and we are waiting for the contract for us to sign so that the fight can take place. But the date has officially been confirmed. And also for Cathy, it’s a tough one but we know the weaknesses of Fatuma Zareka, and we are looking forward to winning, she is looking forward to winning,” Malunga said.

And he announced that boxer Alfred Muwowo will challenge UK’s Jay Harris for the Commonwealth lightweight title in Cardiff’s Ice Arena on March 1, 2019.

“Alfred Muwowo is going to fight Jay Harris, a British national from UK, who has a record of 14 fights all wins and eight of them by knockout, while Alfred has got ten fights all wins and out of those he has got also eight of them by knockout. Very good margin. Alfred is 21, he is going on 22, while the other boxer is 28 years old. The fight will take place in UK, in Wales for the Commonwealth lightweight title fight in Cardiff, in Ice Arena, which is a boxing arena, and we are looking forward to that fight. The boxer is already in camp and I am happy that he is doing very well with training programme brought forward by the boss. Yesterday, I checked on his training programme and also how the boxer was doing, I think he is in good shape,” said Malunga.