Catherine Phiri

Catherine Phiri is a Zambian professional boxer. She held the WBC female bantamweight title from 2016 to 2017 and challenged twice for the WBC female super-bantamweight title in 2017 and 2019.

Boxing career
Phiri debuted on 25 July 2011 when she defeated Zambian boxer Esther Chalwe at the National Sports Development Centre in Lusaka. She won the WBC female bantamweight title by defeating reigning champion Yazmín Rivas on 30 January 2016 in Mexico. She became the first Zambian to win a WBC title.

Her 13th fight was on 27 August 2016 at Lusaka's Government Complex where she retained her WBC title with a first-round stoppage victory against Gabisile Tshabalala. She lost the title in her next fight, suffering the second defeat of her career against Mariana Juárez on 1 April 2017, in Mexico City, Mexico.

On 17 December 2016, she was honoured by the World Boxing Council for being the first boxer from Africa to win the WBC bantamweight title. On 2 November 2017, she was defeated by Fatuma Zarika in a WBC super-bantamweight title fight, losing by unanimous decision with the judges' scorecards reading 97–92, 98–91 and 99–92. Zarika was the defending champion.

A rematch between Phiri and Zarika took place on 3 March 2019 at Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Nairobi, Kenya with the WBC title again on the line. Zarika won by unanimous decision.

Phiri faced Zimbabwe's Kudakwashe Chiwandire for the vacant WBC female interim super-bantamweight title on 26 February 2022, at the Government Complex in Lusaka, Zambia, losing by split decision.

Phiri was suspended from all boxing activities for two years in October 2022, after being found to have used a banned substance. She tested positive for the diuretic furosemide after her loss to Chiwandire in February. Phiri admitted her guilt and her ban was backdated to start from May 2022.

Awards
Catherine Phiri was also given an academic scholarship from the Justina Mutale Foundations Scholarship Programme on 9 June 2016. She is expected to go and study Sports Management at the European School of Economics in Italy. President of Zambia Edgar Chagwa Lungu honoured Catherine Phiri with the Zambia insignia of meritorious achievement award for her accomplishment on Africa Freedom Day, 25 May 2017.