End Of Year Review: Hall Of Fame Show Lights Up 3rd Quarter

The Lagos ABA versus Repton Boys Club of London Boxing Show was the highlight of the third quarter of the outgoing year.

The annual event was packaged by the Lagos Boxing Hall of Fame, LBHF, in conjuction with Lagos Amateur Boxing Association, LABA, under the patronage of the Lagos State Government.

The first half of the tourney was held on Thursday, 22 September at the Grand Ballroom of Eko Hotel & Suites, Lagos in which eight Lagos boxers traded punches with the British boxers, while the grand finale was held the next Saturday at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre, Rowe Park where  seven Lagos boxers slugged it out with their visitors.

LBHF boss, Wale Edun, expressed his appreciation to the sponsors of the tourney, saying that the annual boxing show has come to stay.

“LBHF would at this point like to say a big thank you to all our sponsors and supporters, particularly the corporate backers who have ensured a full house at this show which is arguably becoming a fixture on the social calender,” said Edun.

In the quarter under review, the president of Nigeria Boxing Board of Control, NBB of C, Godwin Kanu, led other executive members and ring officials of the board to the biennial African Boxing Union, ABU, in Lusaka, Zambia.

At the convention, the NBB of C boss was elected as the Executive Vice President of ABU while one of the ring officials, Lateef Muiss, a referee, was elected into the Ring Officials Committee of the union.

Kanu, in a chat with Boxing In Focus on his arrival from Zambia expressed his happiness over the election of Muiss into the ABU’s Ring Official Committee.

“I am delighted that a ring official of the board has been elected into the Ring Officials Committee of ABU. This is a good development for professional boxing in Nigeria that a ring official from the country has been elected into the highest committee for ring officials in Africa,” said Kanu.

On the international stage, National Super Flyweight champion, Yakub Kareem, became a Commonwealth champion on Saturday, 27 August. The Nigerian pugilist beat  Ghana’s Cobbinah Johnson in Accra.

Referee Nunoo Mensah stopped the bout two minutes into the seventh round of the scheduled twelve rounds on the advice of the ringside doctor, following excessive bleeding by the Ghanaian from a cut suffered in the third round.

Kareem, who called the bluff of home favourite Johnson in the build up to the fight, lived up to his words by opening the cut on his opponent early on which proved decisive in the victory.

“I said this fight will not go beyond round eight and that has happened today. I didn’t have problem fighting Cobbinah at all because he was not strong enough for me. I thank God and I thank my manager and promoter, Anthony Karmah, who is also my godfather,” said Kareem.