The focus of the Globacom-sponsored magazine programme, African Voices on CNN International, will this week shift to sports from filmmaking featured last week.

Information made available by the digital transformation network showed that Kamarudeen Usman, a boxer from Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria, will take centrestage on the programme along with Amanda Lino, a female fly-weight and bantam-weight champion from Durban, South Africa, and Balla Dieye, a taekwondo athlete from Dakar, Senegal.

Born in 1987, fast-rising boxing sensation, Usman, is currently the Welterweight Champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is also the Ultimate Fighter 21 tournament winner, and, as at March this year, was Number 7 in the UFC pound-for-pound official rankings.

South Africa’s Lino, popularly called “Mad Dog”, is also making a name in another type of sports, mixed martial arts. She was born in 1990 at Ballito, Kwa-Zulu Natal. She got into martial arts specifically to lose weight but got addicted after a few lessons. Lino is the Amateur Women’s Featherweight World Champion. She was the first female in Extreme Fighting Championship to feature on the main card, and was also ranked second out of 32 active South African female boxers.  She is also the current Best Female Bantam-weight in her country.

Finally on the programme this weekend is taekwondo expert, Dieye. The 38-year-old  competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in the men’s 68kg. He won the French-speaking Championships, the African Championships and two bronze medals at the World championships.

Also reputed for his role in championing peace, Dieye works with the Senegalese and French sports governing bodies to develop sports in West Africa. He has also been playing a lead role in training the next generation of aspiring Olympic athletes in Africa.

Television viewers and sports lovers have opportunity to watch the interesting stories of the athletes on Channel 401 today at 4 a.m., 8.30 a.m., and 7 p.m.; and on Monday, at 4.30 a.m.