GABORONE, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Boxers around the southern Africa region are trading punches at the Africa Zone IV Boxing Championship running in Botswana capital Gaborone until Saturday.

The tournament, already on its second day has seen mouth-watering bouts between some of the region's top boxers in their quest to qualify for the 2019 African Games, the Africa Championship, and furthermore the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The boxers are from the host Botswana, South Africa, Angola, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zambia, Seychelles, Lesotho, Somali and Zimbabwe.

The local boxers started the tournament well with two boxers winning their bouts to proceed to the semifinals.

On Thursday, local 52kg flyweight boxer Rajab Mohammed digged deep to tame Lwando Shongwe of Eswatini.

In the women's category, another local Aratwa Kasemang came up against Zambian Felistus Nkando in the 57-60kg lightweight category.

Kasemang won by referee's decision to stop the bout in the third round as she overpowerd her opponent from the start.

Speaking to Xinhua, Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Chairperson France Mabiletsa said they are very impressed with the organisation of the tournament and the turnout.

He said they did everything to deliver a successful high profile tournament despite the short time they had for preparations.