Staff Reporter
Windhoek-As an added tonic, President Hage Geingob yesterday gave Namibia’s triple world champion Julius ‘Blue Machine’ Indongo an official passport to make use of when he travels to the United States of America for his upcoming fight, saying with the official passport, Indongo is now on an official state mission and fully equipped.
Indongo, who is set to face America’s Terence Crawford in their full world title unification fight at which the world’s four major championship belts (WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF) will be on the line at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Nebraska, USA on August 19, received the official passport during a courtesy visit to State House yesterday.
Indongo was accompanied by his handler, Namibia’s renowned boxing promoter Nestor Tobias, who was also given an official passport by the president and was equally showered with praise for producing world champions and keeping the Namibian flag flying high on the international boxing scene.
“Since you are on an official mission and not a diplomatic mission, I have thus decided to give you an official passport since you will be at the service of the nation. So, with this passport I’m now sending you on official duty to go represent the country and make us proud.
“America has seasoned boxers and I don’t know your opponent very well, but, as always, make us proud and protect yourself,” Geingob said.
If Indongo wins, he will cement his position at the top of his division and his name could even appear on Pound-4-Pound lists. Of course, beating Terence Crawford would take more of Indongo than he has shown of himself, as the American is one of the finest pugilists around the globe.
The winner of this historical matchup will be the first undisputed champion in 12 years.
The last man who was able to hold all four sanctioning body belts at the same time was Jermain Taylor after the former Olympic bronze medalist won a questionable 12-round decision over Bernard Hopkins in the summer of 2005. Taylor lost the IBF belt right after he agreed to an immediate rematch with Hopkins.
For clarity, an official passport such as Indongo received yesterday (also called service passport in some countries), is issued to government employees or persons embarking on official work-related travel or mission. They are also given to their accompanying dependants.
An official passport differs from a diplomatic passport issued to diplomats of a country and their accompanying dependents for official international travel and residence. Also, an official passport is distinct from an ordinary or normal passport issued to regular citizens for ordinary travel, such as for vacation, study and business trips.