Stakeholders in boxing circle in Oyo State have expressed deep appreciation to Flykite Promotions, the organizers of GOtv Boxing Night, for staging the 11th edition of the event in Ibadan, describing it as a good catalyst for the revival of boxing in Oyo State.
The boxing night which was held last weekend inside the indoor sports hall of the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium had the cream of personalities that included the Commissioner for Youths and Sports in Oyo State, Hon. Abayomi Oke and his counterpart in information ministry, Hon. Toye Arulogun, the acting general manager of Oyo State Sports Council, Mr. Gboyega Makinde and chairman of Shooting Stars Sports Club, Alh. Gbolagade Busari.
Also at the event to cheer their kin, the national light welterweight champion, Olaide “Fijaborn” Fijabi was the House of Representative member, Saheed Fijabi representing Ibadan South-West/North-West constituency who was accompanied by his father, Chief Akinade Fijabi.
Speaking after the boxing bouts, the Chairman Oyo State Amateur Boxing Association (OSABA), Chief Baron Akintunde Opaleye who also owns a professional boxing promotion outfit gave big kudos to Flykite, the organiser and Multichoice that sponsored the event for deeming it fit to bring the boxing show to Ibadan.
“You can see the turnout and how excited our people are, this I will say shows that the good people of Ibadan are missing good boxing actions.
“This development will in a long way help our drive in reviving boxing here. It is unknown to many that we have the highest number of boxing clubs and boxers in Nigeria, according to the statistic of OSABA.
“We have more than 200 boxing clubs in Ibadan alone with each of them having between ten to twenty boxers, hence we have been doing our best to actively engage them and expose the good ones among them”, Opaleye noted.
The bouts, which saw Akeem ‘Dodo’ Sadiku recording the fastest technical knockout of the night with one minute 57 second of the first round.
Akeem Dodo, who was from Chief Francis Ayegbeni Gym in Ibadan commanded large number of crowd especially from the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) circle where he belongs.
Packaged by Kunle Gazali
