Oluwamayomikun Orekoya
Chief Executive Officer, Lagos Boxing Hall of Fame (LBHF), Taofiq Aromire, has called for more support for Nigerian boxers and boxing in general as its organisation strive for excellence in pugilism.
Aromire made this known during a courtesy visit to The Nation Headquarters on Thursday to thank the management for its unfailing support over the years.
Aromire who was recently appointed in October was on his whistle-stop visit along with the LBHF’s head of Planning and partnership Olugbenga Musa and he said matter-of-factly that a relationship between the sport and corporate world was essential to ensure the revival of boxing in Nigeria.
“My team’s immediate intention is to quickly seek for ways to increase the monies earned by the boxers and officials but we cannot fully achieved this without the support from the corporate world. There is a need for more sponsorship for boxing and sports in general,” Aromire said.
“We are looking at these avenues to make the funding of amateur boxing sustainable. If we can establish something like this it would go a long way in improving the welfare of our athletes and structure a framework for other sports to copy in other to be self-sufficient.”
Aromire and his team were assured of The Nation’s unflinching support to the activities of LBHF and indeed, sport in general.
“Here at The Nation, we support worthy cause and as you are well aware, we like sports here. One of our titles, SportingLife is now the market leader in its genre in the country today and as partners with LBHF, we can achieve so much,” noted The Nation’s General Manager Training & Development Soji Omotunde.
Equally, a distinguished member of Nation’s Editorial Board, Olakunle Abimbola harped on the need for LBHF to devote attention to discovery and nurturing of new boxing talents that would in no time become household names in Lagos and country at large.
“I grew up to follow boxing in Lagos and I think the LBHF can revive boxing in Lagos because as we all know, Lagos used to be the hub of boxing,” he said. “It will be a win-win situation for both LBHF and Nation if we can take this partnership very seriously and I really want you to do more in the discovery of new talents and bring back the memory of old when boxing used to be a very big event in Lagos.”
Meanwhile, 16 boxers are expected to do battle in the ring as the Sports Hall, Rowe Park, Yaba host the 107th edition of LBHF’s Monthly Boxing Show tomorrow.
The first bout of the day will see Star Boxing Club’s Akano Mubarak step into the ring against Tunde Balogun of WTT Boxing Club in the 52kg class while the last bout of the day will involve African Games Silver medalist, Osoba Afeez of Confidence Boxing Club and Akinboye Abiodun of Gladiator Boxing Club trading punches in the 69kg class.
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