Ekoli Mahenge Zulu (November 21, 1965 – August 27, 2019) was an African-born, Italian boxer. He competed in the welterweight category.
Biography
Mahenge Zulu was born in
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. He grew up in
Pesaro, in the region of
Marche, in Italy.
He started boxing at the age of 15 and made his professional debut at 25, later than most boxers. In 1996 he won the IBF Intercontinental welterweight title. He retired after his loss against
Félix Trinidad in a 1998 fight for the
IBF
The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...
welterweight
Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...
title at the age of 33, ending his boxing career with a record of 17 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw.
He died of a heart attack on August 27, 2019 while on a flight to
Zaire
Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...
. He had suffered some heart and blood pressure issues days before and was warned by his doctor to not fly. Zulu was married to Emilia Bonse, who died in 2016. They have four daughters.
[ ]
Professional Boxing Record
External links
*https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/7584
References
1965 births
2019 deaths
Democratic Republic of the Congo emigrants to Italy
Italian male boxers
Italian sportspeople of African descent
People from Pesaro
Sportspeople from Kinshasa
Sportspeople from the Province of Pesaro and Urbino
Welterweight boxers
{{Italy-boxing-bio-stub