Kennedy Katende

Kennedy Katende (born March 15, 1985 in Kampala , Uganda ) is a Swedish- Ugandan amateur boxer. He represented Sweden at the 2008 Olympics and Uganda at the 2016 Olympics.

Amateur career

Katende was Swedish Junior Champion in 2002 and 2003 and reached fifth place in the middleweight division at the 2003 European Junior Championships in Warsaw . He then boxed in the light heavyweight elite class (adults). After a long time, he did not win a title at national championships. He lost in the finals of 2005 and 2006 against Badou Jack , and in 2010 and 2011 against Babacar Kamara . It wasn't until 2016 that Katende won the Swedish light heavyweight championship.

In 2008 he took part in the European Olympic qualification in Athens and defeated Dariusz Sęk from Poland, Darko Kučuk from Bosnia, Bahram Muzaffer from Turkey and Anastasios Berdesis from Greece, before he was eliminated in the final against Kenneth Egan from Ireland. He had thus qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing , but lost there in the first fight against Artur Beterbijew from Russia.

He was also a participant in the 2010 European Championships in Moscow and the 2011 World Championships in Baku , defeating Yamaguchi Falcão , Imre Szellő , Enrico Kölling and Obed Mbwakongo in international matches .

For Uganda he won a bronze medal at the Africa Games in Brazzaville in 2015 . At the African Olympic qualification in March 2016 in Yaoundé , he reached third place in the light heavyweight division with victories against Yoda Aboubacar, Sadiq Umar and Luvuyo Sizani, as well as a defeat against Abdelhafid Benchabla . He qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics . There he was eliminated in the first fight against the British Joshua Buatsi .

Professional career

He played his first professional fight on November 26, 2016 in the USA and won on points.

Web links

• Kennedy Katende in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Website; amateur-boxing.strefa.pl