Lesotho boxing star Moroke Mokhotho: "I want to remove kids from the streets and take them to the boxing gym"

Moroke Mokhotho was always told to stay away from boxing by his parents, as the sport was too violent.

It mattered little though as his dream, like so many other children in Lesotho, was to play professional football.

One day at high school while on his way to training, a friend of Mokhotho’s convinced him to try boxing instead.

He agreed, and it wasn't long before he broke several ribs during a sparring session. His parents had been proven somewhat correct.

However, Mokhotho was back in the ring four weeks later.

“I came back because I wanted revenge!” the determined boxer told Olympics.com.

“I wasn't scared of those guys, I just knew they had more experience and skills than me.

“I told myself that one day I will defeat these guys.”

Within two months of returning, Mokhotho had defeated all of his previous sparring partners.

The anger that had previously motivated him, quickly evolved into passion for a sport he had a natural aptitude for.

Within one year, he reached the Lesotho national championships finals, at which point his coach told him that he could compete for the national team.

“I was like, ‘No way man. What are you talking about?’ I thought those guys were so much better than me,” he said with a smile.

“But because of my performances in training and the dedication I was showing, he thought that I could go far in this sport if I simply continued doing what I was doing.”

Boxing in secret

There were two big issues in his way.

The first was his parents. Despite having found purpose and happiness in the ring, Mokhotho knew that they would not approve of his participation.

So he decided to train and fight in secret.

“They hated it because they said it would teach me violence. They all wanted me to play football. That's the main reason I didn’t tell them I was boxing.”

Mokhotho’s plan worked for two years until his parents heard that he had made the national team.

He confessed everything to them, which made his life easier as he’d no longer have to sneak away from the family home in order to attend practice.

Walking 40km to training for lack of funding

With the support of his parents secured, Mokhotho still had a second hurdle to overcome in his pursuit of becoming a full-time boxer.

Hailing from an underprivileged village, he didn’t have the financial means to get to training quickly.

“I had to walk about 20km to train at my club, and then I’d walk another 20km to train with the national team. I’d then walk back the same route," he admitted.

“It was a big problem because in the morning I would go to school very tired, and I couldn't complete all of my schoolwork.

"A lack of money was the biggest problem I faced."

But the young pugilist doubled down on his dedication to training, feeling that it was his best shot at improving his life.

An Olympic Solidarity Scholarship alleviated some of this stress through funding the boxer’s transport and equipment, and it wasn’t long before he started to reap the rewards of his sacrifices.

After winning his nation’s first ever medal at the 2014 African Championships, a silver, the flyweight went on to win consecutive All Africa Games bronze medals in 2011 and 2015, and serve as his nation's flagbearer at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

He then made his sporting dreams come true by competing at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

“The Olympics were one of the very happiest moments I ever felt,” he said.

“Ever since I started playing sports in primary school, running and playing soccer, and later boxing, people would tell me about the importance of the Games.

“So that became my target to reach and I was overwhelmed to be there, given how hard I had to work to make to be there.”

Life lessons through boxing

But more important than his personal accolades were the lessons Mokhotho learnt for his life outside the ring.

Rather than teaching him violence, it did quite the opposite.

“Boxing taught me how to be disciplined and how to control my emotions during hard times,” he said.

“I conducted myself in a more positive manner after going into boxing and my mindset improved.

"Before boxing, the only thing that mattered to me was: How do I get more money? And my role models were rich people.

Empowering lives through sport

Mokhotho was a first-hand witness to the power sport has to positively change lives.

Towards the end of his career, he decided that it was time to give back to his community and pass on some of the vital life lessons he had learnt as a boxer.

In February 2022, he opened the Rocket Sport Academy in his hometown of Ha Thetsane, with the primary motivation of combatting alarming crime rates and promoting social cohesion.

The academy empowers women, children and people living with disabilities through boxing and badminton.

“I realised that as a country, we are lacking development in sports infrastructure,” he said.

“We are constantly catching up to other countries who identify sporting talent early on.

“With this academy, I’m trying to channel young kids into sports and then teach them how important it is for them to participate in sport, and the benefits that it can bring.

“There are a lot of kids on the streets, aren't there? Sport can motivate them and give them new skills that can help them get a job too.

“That’s what we’re trying to achieve in the sporting fraternity. We are trying to remove those kids from the streets and take them to the gym. They will have an alternative path to pursuing criminal activities."

The benefits to such an academy are widespread.

While greater social cohesion and a positive lifestyle are promoted, there is also the chance that future sporting stars will be unearthed.

“I only started boxing when I was 18, so I never had the opportunity to attend a Youth Olympic Games, and I want that to change,” he continued.

*“*It motivates me because I was so disciplined as an athlete, trained so much, and the results speak for themselves.

“Many kids in Lesotho have since taken up sport because of this, and even now, they tell me that they want to be like me.

“We are now giving them an opportunity to make that happen. We are letting them know that sport is for all of us, and that we can all make a better life through it.”

With the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026 on the horizon, Africa’s first YOG, the timing of the Rocket Sport Academy could not have been better.

With Mokhotho putting the same effort into inspiring young kids that he did into his own trailblazing career, Lesotho will surely not have to wait long for its next champion in the ring.