Leo Rwabwogo is officially recorded as having been born on June 3 1949, but some of his family associates position his date of delivery as being as significantly back again as 1942. Rwabwogo died on January 14, 2009 (some sources point out, January 15, 2009), when he collapsed although tending to his crop plantation that included bananas, in western Uganda. He probable died from heart failure.
Leo Rwabwogo was one of the most well known of Uganda’s amateur boxing fighters during the 1960’s. Rwabwogo’s intercontinental prominence arrived with the African Boxing Championships that have been held in Zambia’s funds Lusaka in June 1968. Rwabwogo, as a flyweight, emerged as gold-medalist with a gain above Mohamed Selim of Egypt.
The unforgettable Olympic Video games of 1968 (Oct 12 to Oct 27), were held in the populous Mexico cash of Mexico City. Rwabwogo started in the preliminaries by defeating Sang Byung-Soo of South Korea by 5-. Subsequent came the quarter-finals, and Rwabwogo managed to conquer Tibor Badari of Hungary, by 3-2. Due to the fact of his unbelievable speed and performance, muscular and nicely-conditioned Rwabwogo was suspected of having inhaled marijuana. There was no proof that Rwabwogo had damaged any policies! Next arrived the semi-finals in which Rwabwogo was pitted against Artur Olec of Poland. However, Rwabwogo was judged as obtaining shed the bout by 2-3. Even so, Leo Rwabwogo, by winning the bronze medal, became Uganda’s initial Olympic medalist. His title would become cemented into Uganda’s sports activities history, without end!
Subsequently, Artur Olec was defeated by Ricardo Delgado (Ricardo Delgado Nogales) of Mexico, in the finals. Delgado turned qualified in 1969, but his qualified report is mediocre with about half as wins and 50 percent as defeats by details. Delgado retired from professional boxing in 1975.
In 1970, Leo Rwabwogo would glow as a contributor to Uganda’s emergence as top Commonwealth boxing country. The 1970 Commonwealth Game titles ended up held in Edinburgh in Scotland all through July 17-24. In the quarterfinals, flyweight Leo Rwabwogo shone by defeating Leon Nissen of Australia with the referee halting the bout in the 2nd round. In the semi-finals, Rwabwogo was pitted towards David Larmour of Ireland. Rwabwogo gained by a vast majority factors decision. Even so, in the finals, Rwabwogo was defeated 4-1 by Dave Needham of England. Rwabwogo became honored with a silver medal. Dave “the Clever Dodger” Needham is famous in the British Empire, and received quite a few British specialist titles.
Rwabwogo subsequent predominantly shone in the future Olympics. Rwabwogo notably managed his weight and represented Uganda, again as a flyweight at the 1972 Olympics that ended up held from August 28 to September 10. In the preliminaries, Rwabwogo would overwhelmingly defeat Jorge Acuna of Uruguay by 5-. Following, muscular Rwabwogo technically knocked out Maurice O’Sullivan of Excellent Britain in the initial round. The future preliminary bout would all over again favor Rwabwogo with a 4-1 acquire over Orn-Chim Chawalit of Thailand. Rwabwogo then moved on to the quarter-finals and delivered with a 3rd-round complex knockout of Neil McLaughlin of Ireland. And in the semi-finals, notwithstanding the outstanding dominance of Cubans at the 1972 Game titles and in environment novice boxing as a whole, Leo Rwabwogo was capable to convincingly defeat Douglas Rodriguez of Cuba by 3-2. The Cubans dominated boxing at these Olympic Game titles, and however Rodriguez was defeated by Rwabwogo and settled for bronze, afterwards at the Earth Newbie boxing Championships held in Havana, Rodriguez would capture gold.
Regretably, in the remaining of the 1972 Olympics, Rwabwogo missing to Georgi Kostadinov of Bulgaria by 5-. Rwabwogo experienced allegedly gathered a thumb harm that might properly have been a main aspect in the loss. Yet, Leo Rwabwogo experienced even further cemented himself in Uganda heritage as the only Ugandan to have gained two Olympic medals. No Ugandan has ever re-enacted Rwabwogo’s feat. Moreover, simply because Rwabwogo gained a lot more Olympic boxing medals than any other Ugandan boxer, Rwabwogo is regarded by lots of as Uganda’s prime novice boxer. this is a moot concern, given that quite a few other Ugandans, such as James Odwori, Mohamed Muruli, and Ayub Kalule received additional gold medals in their global competitions. But yet again, many regard the Olympics as the classic hallmark of international competitors!
Enable it also be regarded that in Rwabwogo’s subsequent significant worldwide outing, that is the All-Africa Video games (held in Nigerian money Lagos from January 7-18 1973) Leo Rwabwogo (only 3 months after his silver medal gain at the Olympics) was in his very to start with preliminary eradicated (3-2) by Laha Ratavi of Madagascar! Ratavi was practically unfamiliar in the boxing planet just as Madagascar’s stance in the boxing planet was abysmally low. Upcoming, Laha Ratavi was defeated in the quarter-finals by Isaac Maiawa of Kenya. Maiawa inevitably became the silver-medalist. Ratavi was never heard of, yet again, as regards global boxing! Also, Leo Rwabwogo would small be listened to of once more as regards battling for his native Uganda country. Rwabwogo is not even outlined among Uganda’s team of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, that inevitably boycotted the Games’. Even in retrospect, Rwabwogo was not involved in the 1974 Uganda teams of the African Boxing Championships, the Commonwealth Online games, and the Environment Beginner Boxing Championships.
Maybe age and injuries had caught up with famed Uganda newbie boxer, Leo Rwabwogo it’s possible the nationwide coaches deemed forthcoming youthful boxers as far more competent than Leo Rwabwogo. Rwabwogo in no way moved into the skilled ranks, but he sometimes lamented that he was denied the prospect when Uganda boxing officers both blocked his possibilities or were being discouraging! Rwabwogo, in history, however persists as a single of the most skillful, powerful, agile and properly-conditioned of Uganda’s boxers
