Nigeria’s fortune in boxing continue to dwindle despite the fact that it was the sport that earned the country its first Olympic Games medal. Apart from the inactivity being experienced in the sport, some of the country’s finest boxers are dumping the sport. OLUWAMAYOMIKUN OREKOYA, reports.
Apart from fetching the country its first Olympic Games medal, the exploits of pugilists like Nojim Maiyegun, Isaac Ikhouria, and Peter Konyegwachie, who all won medals at the Olympic Games inspired a new generation of boxers in the 1990s.
But all this have fizzled out following the doldrums being experienced in the sport.
Indeed, boxing has witnessed a slow death and when Efe Ajagba was Nigeria’s sole representative at Rio Olympic Games in 2016, most insiders felt it was the sound of the death knell for boxing in Nigeria.
But the worst was yet to come.
In February 2020, Nigeria missed the African Olympics Qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal reportedly due to lack of funds, resulting in the country not being represented in the Olympic boxing event since the 1988 Games in Seoul, Korea.
For Afeez Osoba, missing the Olympics qualifiers still rankles him as he was sure to pick up the Olympics ticket after settling for a silver medal at the 2019 African Games in Morocco.
He said: “We were ready for the qualifiers. We had been preparing for it for a long time only to be told we could not travel to Senegal at the eleventh hour.
“I believe I would have performed enough to qualify for Tokyo based on my performance at the last African Games in Morocco,” he added.
But Osoba, the 2019 Lagos Governor’s belt champion , said he has left the Olympics disappointment behind and is ready to give his all to be on the plane for Birmingham in July.
“Preparation has been good since my body has responded well to the physical and technical aspect of the sport after not boxing regularly for a while.
“The important thing, for now, is to secure the qualification for the Commonwealth Games and then we will talk of medals when we get there,” Afeez added.
Two-time Governor’s belt champion and National Festival gold medallist Ayisat Oriyomi is of the opinion that boxers can’t train without knowing where they are going to sleep or what they are going to eat.
“Doing sports is challenging, especially here in Nigeria, because if you love it and you don’t have a job, it is difficult to take part,” she said, “I normally encourage my fellow females to look for work as well as boxing so that they can continue with the sport.”
Oriyomi, a quarterfinalist in the Gold Coast Games in 2018, said she is confident that the changing of her training program will enable her to get desirable results should she be in Birmingham.
“There have been changes in our training because, in the past, I would just practice randomly, but now we train specifically for the competition ahead,” she added.
For Coach Always Kazeem, the revival of boxing will only occur through constant sponsorship of competitions which will channel the strengths of many youths into the sport to make them productive.
“Currently, boxers are poorly motivated and this has discouraged many talents,” coach Always noted.
“Boxing in Nigeria should be taken to the next level and I don’t think it is a hard job to do, but everything depends solely on how the people involved in the business take it.
“There are so many Nigerian talented combat sports athletes but they lack the platform to showcase their talents or would not be selected to represent a state due to internal politics.”
Another boxing coach, Abbey Yusuf believes that there are many young boys who can bring glory to the nation if the government invests in boxing.
He said that the major problem is finance, and wants the government and corporate Nigeria to invest in amateur boxing especially.
According to Yusuf, it takes a lot of things to become a top boxer with discipline, determination, and devotion to training as some of the basic principles, however, the boxers must be happy and interested in the sport, hence the need for adequate funding for the sport.
“Boxing has suffered so much in Nigeria despite being arguably one of the most successful sports in the country.”
“Most of our boxers are normally left to their own fate only for the country to come back and reward them when they toil to win medals.
“This fire brigade approach of doing things must end, Cuba and the United States remain some of the biggest achievers in boxing at the amateur ranks because of their commitment to the sport over the years through huge investments,” he added.
Yet there are indications that amateur boxing might return to its glory days as the 2022 National Open Boxing Championship kicks off tomorrow in Kaduna.
The championship will serve as a national qualifier for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England between July 28 and August 8.
The weeklong tournament will feature all the 10 weight categories for men according to the International Boxing Association (IBA) standard, while six weight categories will feature in the women’s class.