Sport banned by Gadhafi making a comeback

TRIPOLI, Libya - Sofiyan al-Bassar swings his right fist and delivers a blow to the face of his rival, splitting his lower lip and knocking him off balance before rushing in to try to finish him off.

"Stop! Stop!" yells a stocky man as he pulls the 23-year-old back.

Bassar and his opponent Ramzi Abdulhadi al-Haji are not members of rival militias fighting on the streets of Tripoli, but they are among the first enthusiastic young men to join a newly opened boxing club in the city.

Boxing, considered as a "savage" sport and banned since 1979 by former Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, is making a comeback in the North African country after Gadhafi's ouster and death.

The club, which is still to be named, operates from what used to be a regular meeting place of Gadhafi diehards to discuss the dictator's Green Book, a collection of his political, economic and social teachings. "We are relaunching the sport which we love - but he hated - from one of his own places," the stocky man, coach Dris Ali Mohammed, said.

Gadhafi was killed in a fierce battle at his hometown of Sirte on Oct 20, ending an eight-month conflict which erupted in February last year.

Mohammed said he was part of the last international boxing championship in which Libya participated, in Venezuela in 1979.

Now 63, he took part in the featherweight class and fought rivals from Thailand and Venezuela before a broken finger forced him to withdraw from the tournament.

Only three years beforehand, Mohammed had met boxing legend Muhammad Ali in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, which first rose up against Gadhafi last year.

Soon after his return to Libya from Venezuela, Mohammed had to stop boxing and instead took up powerlifting and bodybuilding after Gadhafi banned the sport.

"I kept my gloves in the closet and began training in powerlifting and bodybuilding," he says. "I took them out two months ago after nearly 33 years to teach these boys," he adds, as behind him Bassar and Haji begin another round of sparring.

The small compound from where Mohammed runs the club in central Tripoli's Zawiyah Street resembles an old garage with big iron gates painted in green - a symbol of Gadhafi's regime - and half-covered by a wooden roof.

Achieving dreams

Behind the iron gates of the compound, two brown punching bags swing wildly from the rafters as three young men deliver a series of blows with their dusty looking gloves.

"This had always been my dream. I used to ask people where I can learn boxing, but nobody dared to talk of it," says Haji.

"Now, thanks to our coach Mohammed who is spending his own money, I can learn the sport. I want to be Libya's Muhammad Ali."

Agence France-Presse