Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ile-Ife has pledged his assistance to the current World Boxing Federations (WBF) Super Featherweight Champion, Ridwan ‘Scorpion’ Oyekola in his quest to defend his title against an opponent from Georgia, Giorgi Gogatishvili.
The Arole Oduduwa made this pledge while hosting the boxer and his crew in his palace over the weekend where the monarch commended the courage and determination of the boxer, while describing his story of rising from an Okada rider to world champ as a typical Nigerian story.
The Ooni, however, urged the ministry of Youths and Sports to intensify efforts towards using boxing as a means for our youths to overcome poverty just like the case of Ridwan Scorpion by encouraging more youths to take to professional boxing owing to the volume of our talented boxers that are wasting away in the amateur level.
“I’m moved by the story of Ridwan ‘Scorpion’, and I know we have many of them wasting away and that is why I will do all within my capacity to support his aspiration to successfully defend his WBF title. I want to call on the Ministry of Sports to do more towards discovering more world champions”, said the respected Yoruba monarch.
Meanwhile, the title defense fight that was earlier fixed for October 30th according to Core Afrique Boxing Promotions (COABOX) that is managing Ridwan ‘Scorpion’ has been shifted to the December 26th because the boxer might be stripped off the title by the global body that is managing the belt if he fails to defend it this year.
“President of World Boxing Federation (WBF), Howard Goldberg has agreed with us to shift the fight after he read the news about the financial constraints and the intervention of our minister in online news mediums, and that is why I’m thanking our Kabiyesi for his timely intervention, and also appreciate the Onigbaye of Igbaye, Odo-Otin local government of Osun State, Oba Joseph Okunola”, said Sola Ayodele, CEO COABOX.
Packaged by Olanrewaju Agiri
