Lottie Mwale

In his youth, Lottie Mwale’s athletic pursuit of choice was football, but he dealt with growing up in a poor and violent neighborhood by learning the art of boxing. He soon demonstrated a natural talent in that sport and began training as a light-middleweight at the Rhokana Amateur Boxing Club. He began competing internationally for Zambia in 1970 and earned his first major international medal, bronze, at the 1971 East and Central African Championships, after being defeated by Uganda’s David Jackson. Soon thereafter, his inability to support himself through his amateur boxing career led him to move to Chiliabombwe to work as a copper miner. He continued to train in his spare time, however, and was selected to represent his country at the 1972 Summer Olympics. Yet upon arrival, the poor organization of the Zambian delegation cost him an opportunity at Olympic glory, as he failed to make weight in time for his debut.

Mwale returned to Zambia and began working as an apprentice electrician, although his main focus remained his boxing career, which eventually led him to the nation’s capital of Lusaka, where he joined the Lusaka City Amateur Boxing Club in 1973. From there he was recruited for the army so that he could become a member of the Army Boxing Club, as well as earn a stable salary while being given an opportunity to train. His perseverance paid off and, in 1974, he became Zambia’s first Commonwealth Games champion by winning the light-heavyweight division of the boxing tournament. He followed it up with gold medals at the 1975 All-African Military and East and Central African Amateur Boxing Championships, which led to his selection to represent Zambia at the 1976 Summer Olympics. His dreams of capturing Olympic gold, however, were shattered by Zambia’s withdrawal from participation as part of the African boycott. His final major international tournament as an amateur was the World Military Championships, where he once again emerged as champion before turning professional.

In only his second fight as a professional, Mwale battled and defeated Julius Luipa for the Zambian light heavyweight title in 1977. He would not lose a fight until November 1980, when he was knocked out by Saad Muhammad in a bout for the WBC World light heavyweight title, but he collected the Commonwealth and African Boxing Union light heavyweight titles along the way. Over the next five years he would win 13 of his 14 bouts, the exception being a loss to former WBA light heavyweight champion Mustapha Muhammad, and successfully defended his Commonwealth and ABU titles five times. In August 1985, however, he lost the Commonwealth title to Trinidad and Tobago’s Leslie Stewart, and eight months later the ABU one to Nigeria’s Joe Lasisi. From then on his record was mixed, but he successfully defended the Zambian light heavyweight title against Enock Chama in 1989, before switching to cruiserweight and winning that national title in 1990. He returned to the light heavyweight division later that year and finally took the WBC World title. He lost it almost two years later to Virgil Hill of the United States and, after failing in two attempts to regain the Zambian light heavyweight title, he retired in 1994 with a record of 44-9-0.

Mwale remained quiet after his retirement and was erroneously declared dead in 2001, which led him deeper into poverty after his WBC pension was stopped. His actual death came four years later, following a lengthy struggle with Parkinson’s disease. A boxing school in Lusaka is named in his honor.