The good old days, the glory days… Ramy Zialor   ‘When you work with the best you can’t go wrong’ |08 March 2022

A proud Zialor with his trophies and medals won in his career

Seychelles has produced some very talented boxers over the years, and one of them is former featherweight sensation Ramy, Patrick Zialor who is considered one of the country’s best boxers to ever live.

Zialor started boxing at the age of 14 but that didn't stop him from trying his hands at other sports like hockey and football just like most other sportsmen in Seychelles in the 1970s and 80s.

Born on July 6, 1960, Zialor features in today’s fortnightly series aimed at reviving memories of achievements and honouring former Seychellois greats who have become coaches, administrators or are just living a simple life away from their once loved sport.

Debut in boxing

As member of the Victoria City and Rovers clubs, Zialor had Michael (Mike) Pillay, Jack Causton and Simon Lespoir as mentors and between 1974 and 1979, he took part in many interclub competitions and also featured in the Independence competition in 1976.

“I can’t really say why I joined boxing. All I know is that I always had a lot of enthusiasm for boxing… All I know is that when you get into the ring you’ve got to have a lot of guts. You’ve got to be ready to accept blows and to give blows back. You’ve got to be dedicated and you have to sacrifice a lot because you’re going to take some beating in the ring. It’s not like football where the only time you get hurt is when there is a foul. In boxing someone’s trying to hit you all the time. So you’ve got to know how to take blows and also accept defeat,” Zialor told Seychelles NATION in an interview published in April 1980.

In 1977, he was part of the first boxing team to travel overseas to Reunion and he won his two fights against Reunionnais Jean-Marc Venner and Raymond Gevia. He received the trophy for best performer.

A year later (in 1978), Zialor was part of the first boxing team to attend the Federation of Eastern, Southern and Central Africa Amateur Boxing Association (Fescaba) Championship in Tanzania and won a bronze medalin the 57kg category. He lost to Kenyan featherweight champion, Modest Oduori, who was fresh from winning a silver medal in the King’s Cup in Thailand.

“I didn’t figure that I would finish three rounds with him and I didn’t figure that it was going to be a split decision because I knew that I was in against tough opposition,” said Zialor after the fight he lost to Oduori who only managed to eke out a split decision.

That same year in Reunion, Zialor, 11 years younger than Reunion’s veteran featherweight champion and former French finalist Jean-Marc Venner, outclassed the latter to win a unanimous points decision.

First IOIG gold medal

In 1979, coach Thomas ‘Sarge’ Johnson from the United States of America, coach of the highly successful 1976 USA boxing team comprising Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Spinks, Howard Davis, Leon Spinks, Leo Randolph and John Tate, took charge of the Seychelles team’s preparation for the first Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Reunion that same year. Johnson was here to run a workshop and decided to help train the team.

Zialor claimed the IOIG 57kg gold medal. He beat Raymond Gevia, who was hailed as the very best of Reunion’s boxers at the time, in the final in front of his own supporters and was named the best boxer for Seychelles. In fact, it was the second encounter between the two boxers and Zialor won both.

“I think one of the best fights of my career was the IOIG final when I won the gold medal. I still remember getting into the ring a little bit tense. Mike Pillay told me that it was now or never. He added: ‘Think of all the food you didn’t eat, think of all the girls you didn’t go out with, think of all the nightclubs you didn’t go to. Think of all the running you had to do in the morning.’ I knew I had to win and I did it,” said Zialor.

Zialor, 19 years old at the time, said he felt really good and proud when he heard the Seychelles national anthem playing in front of 5,000 or 6,000 people.

“That night was one of the best nights,” he added.

Zialor the double Olympian

Zialor is a double Olympian and became the first person to represent Seychelles at the Olympic Games when he competed in the men's featherweight category at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union on July 24.

Fighting in the 57kg and standing at 1.60m, Zialor was given a bye in round one, but was beaten in the second round by his Ethiopian opponent Leoul Neeraio 3-2.Zialor followed a training camp in Arusha, Tanzania before taking part in the Olympic Games.

The other boxers who took part in the Olympics were Michael Pillay and Michel Moncherry.

“I had never expected to ever take part in the Olympic Games, the biggest sporting event in the world. My mother always told me: ‘One day you will go to the Olympics’ but I never thought that we would ever make it,” said Zialor.

Four years later, the same sequence of events was repeated at the Los Angeles Olympics in the United States of America (USA) when he was defeated 0-5 in round two by Jean Mbereke from Cameroon, this time boxing in the men's light welterweight (63.5kg) on August 1, 1984.

Ralph Labrosse (71kg), Basil Boniface (67kg) and Jean-Claude Labonté (60kg) were also part of the boxing team. The team were not accompanied by a coach.

Fescaaba champion

Between 1981 and 1983, Zialor trained and took part in a number of competitions in Seychelles, Kenya, Thailand, Madagascar and Reunion and even won the silver medal of the Zone Seven championship in 1981.

Come 1984 when Seychelles hosted the Federation of Eastern, Southern and Central Africa Amateur Boxing Association (Fescaba) Championship a month before the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Zialor was at the peak of his career, had become stronger and technically superior. It was no surprise to see him claim the 63.5kg gold medal before a packed Stad Popiler.

“At that time we were training under the guidance of Russian coach Dan Pozniak who had replaced Vladimir Nevski. He decided that I should step up a weight category and fight in the 63.5kg division instead. He was right because I did not have to lose weight all the time to fight in the 57kg category and I felt so weak by the time I reached the third round. In the 63.5kg category, I felt more comfortable, stronger and I could better control my weight. Although, I thought, my height would be to my disadvantage, coach Pozniak would tell me to go in there and fight,” said Zialor.

Zialor added that coach Pozniak could not accompany the Seychelles team to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 as 14 Eastern bloc countries and allies, led by the former Soviet Union, boycotted the Games.

“His absence was a psychological blow to me and the rest of the boxers. He had prepared the team, but could not make the trip at the last minute,” said Zialor.

Knee injury

In 1985, Zialor took a break from boxing due to a knee injury as a result of a car accident. For six months he had to move around on crutches.

He took the opportunity to attend a coaching refereeing course in Tanzania sponsored by the International Boxing Association (Aiba) and the International Olympic committee (IOC).

He was the manager and assistant coach of the Seychelles boxing team at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, between July 24 and August 2, 1986.

From 1987 to 1991, Zialor furthered his studies in Cuba and the same year he came back home, he attended a three-week International Olympic Solidarity coaching course for East, Central and Southern Africa in Arusha, Tanzania.

He was the boxing assistant national coach and manager and member of the Seychelles Boxing Federation executive committee from 1991 to 1998.

As coach and manager, he accompanied the Seychelles team to the All-Africa Games in Cairo, Egypt (in 1991), Pre-Olympic Games qualifier in Morocco (in 1992), Fescaaba Championship in Uganda, King’s Cup tourney in Thailand and Barcelona Olympic Games (in 1992), King’s Cup tourney in Thailand, and Mayor’s Cup in Philippines (between 1993 and 1995), All-Africa Games in Zimbabwe (in 1995), Pre-Olympic qualifier in Tunisia (in 1996). He also represented Seychelles at Aiba congress in Turkey (in 1998).

In the Indian Ocean region, he took part in IOIG in 1979 (as boxer), in 1993 and 1998 (as coach) and in 2003 (as special invitee).

Other highlights of his career include organising the first computer box course for the Indian Ocean region and which was conducted by the general secretary of Aiba. He was key to successfully plan and stage the first and second international President’s Cups in Seychelles which was given the green light by Aiba.

Break from boxing

Zialor took a break from boxing in 1998 and has of today not got involved with the running of the sport here although he follows the results and performances of the young boxers.

Asked if Seychelles will ever regain its might in the ring, Zialor replied:

“When I took a break as coach and federation member we were cruising. We had some of the best world renowned coaches in the region among them two former Olympic champions. When you work with the best you can’t go wrong. Being the assistant of these different technicians you can only become better. We all know the progress and power we had as a small island from the 1979 IOIG onwards till the late 1990s.

“Even the Mauritian team at the Tokyo Olympics had a foreign technician to assist.

“Seychelles has natural gifted athletes, especially in boxing when you remember Michael Pillay, Daniel Marengo, Peter Isaac, Ralph Labrosse, Rene Sabury, Michel Moncherry, Garry Crispin, Felix Remie, Alain Surman, Olderick Esparon, Jean Claude Labonté, Adolf Tirant and myself. Then came the next generation of boxers like Gerry Legras, Rival Cadeau (now Payet) and Roland Raforme.

In my opinion, the pool of fighters are out there but it takes a whole lot more to get to the finish line. We need dedicated manpower.”

Zialor is currently involved with boxing through the mixed martial arts group Seychelles and is also a member of the association.

He is also a member of the La Mezcla (mixture in Spanish) band formed more than 15 years ago and they play in hotels.

Compiled by Gerard Govinden