Sports
Boxing Needs More Corporate Support -WABU President
The President of the West African Boxing Union (WABU), Remi Aboderin, has called on corporate organisations in Nigeria to emulate pay television service provider, GOtv’s support for Nigerian boxing.
Aboderin, also the Secretary-General of the Nigerian Boxing Board of Control (NBB of C), said that GOtv’s intervention had helped to revive boxing in Nigeria.
The WABU president addressed journalists in Lagos on Wednesday night to announce the 18th edition of the GOtv Boxing Night scheduled on Sunday in Ibadan.
He said that support from more organisations would strengthen boxing in the country.
“Nobody connected to Nigerian boxing will fail to see the strides being made by the sport since GOtv intervened in 2014.
“Its intervention, which has seen it invest huge sums, time, organisation, logistics, especially the live broadcast of the event by SuperSport, has rescued our beloved sport from irrelevance.
“I can tell you that we, at the NBB of C, are happy, boxers are happy, sub-regional and continental boxing bodies such as the African Boxing Union are also happy for GOtv’s support,’’ Abodrein said.
He urged other corporate organisations to emulate GOtv to ensure Nigerian boxing’s return to the top.
“With more corporate support, it will happen faster.
“Under five years of sponsoring GOtv Boxing Night and GOtv Boxing NextGen Search, Nigerian boxing has regained prominence on the African and Commonwealth scenes.
“Our boxers are sought after, as many champions have been made. We need to go a few notches higher, and that will happen if others show similar commitment,” he added.
Tidesports source reports that the 18th edition of the GOtv Boxing Night is scheduled to hold at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan, on April 21.
The eight-fight show will feature two international duels, the ABU lightweight title clash between Oto “Joe Boy” Joseph of Nigeria and Ghana’s Success “Brave Warrior” Tetteh, and an international light middleweight clash between Akeem “Dodo” Sadiku of Nigeria and Ekpresso Djamihou of the Republic of Benin.
Also on the card is the national super featherweight title bout between Ridwan ‘Scorpion” Oyekola and the champion, Taofeek “Taozon” Bisuga.
Other boxers in action include Rilwan “Baby Face” Babatunde, WABU welterweight champion, going against Ganiyu “Energy” Kolawole, while Tope “Esepo” Agbaje will battle Michael “Holy Mike” Jacobs.
Young, dynamic and fast puncher, Opeyemi “Sense” Adeyemi, has a chance to prove his qualities when he fights Isaac “I Star” Chukwudi in a national title challenge.
The organisers, as usual, has N1 million prize for the best boxer of the night which has given the event that edge over the years.
The grand finale of the MTN Champs will commence from today and end on Sunday at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja where 10 winners will bag scholarship and financial benefits.
MTN CHAMPS is a program in Nigeria that aims to unearth and foster athletics talent across the country.
It is modeled after the Jamaican High school CHAMPS and is poised to become the primary platform for identifying and nurturing promising athletes who could go on to represent Nigeria in prestigious international competitions such as the Olympics and World Championships.
Before the finals in Abuja, the track and field event was held in three different regions namely: Uyo, Benin and Ibadan where over 7,000 athletes have competed and 42 finalists emerged.
Speaking at the MTN Champs Press Conference held on Wednesday in Abuja, the General Secretary of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Rita Mosindi appealed for the introduction of anti-doping lectures for the young athletes.
“ I want to appeal for the introduction of anti-doping lectures for the kids to educate them on the side effects of taking dope substances.
“These are raw talents that we can manage and nurture them to stardom.
“My advice is to do seminars concerning this just as we have started doing as a federation to reduce doping cases in Nigeria.”
Founder and CEO of Making of Champions (MoC), Bambo Akanni, who is the brain behind the MTN Champs revealed that 10 young athletes from the championship will get special scholarship in the USA and Jamaica.
“MTN Champs involving Secondary School Championship is to discover future Olympians for the country, building youth to excel in sports and academics. This is in line with MTN history of supporting local athletes for global aspirations.
Rivers Hoopers of Port Harcourt player Effiong Abel has expressed joy for winning the just concluded Nigeria Basketball Premier (NBPL) League Final Four in Port Harcourt.
According to him, the game was not an easy one, adding that they were going through a hard training before the competition.
Effiong disclosed his excitement last Saturday in an exclusive interview with Tidesports shortly after Rivers Hoopers defeated Nigeria Customs basketball team 77-57 in the final game of the four of the NBPL in Port Harcourt.
He stated that it was a team work that saw them through, adding that he was very happy winning the tournament in the front of his fans.
“ I feel very excited today for winning the Nigeria Basketball Premier League Final Four in Port Harcourt.
“ It was not an easy one because of the type of training we were undergoing to ensure we get victory in the tournament.
“I give kudos to my teammates and the coaching crew, they were awesome.
“ Also kudos to the fans, they came out in numbers to support us” Effiong said.
Effiong personally took charge at some point of the game delivering three pointers which eventually created a lee way for a sumptuous finale.
By: Kiadum Edookor
Organisers of the ongoing school athletics competition, MTN Champs, Making of Champions (MoC), have appealed to all athletes who have participated in the three legs of the championship, as well as their schools, parents, coaches and everyone connected to them to support the body in its efforts to eradicate the systemic age cheating in Nigeria’s athletics by committing to use their real ages at the Abuja grand final and in future.
“MTN has provided a historic opportunity for Nigeria to finally tackle the pressures that our athletes have long faced to cut their ages,” MoC said in a statement made available to news men.
“Never in our nation’s history has there been a nationwide series of championships that has provided three age groups cutting across ages 11 to 19, to give everyone possible opportunity to compete fairly in their own age groups, and we have even relaxed the junior age group from U-20 to U-23.
The grand finale will hold in Abuja from December 1 to 3.
The MoC statement added: “Despite the fact that appropriate age groups have been provided for everyone, we have seen widespread age discrepancies across all three age categories – Cadet (U-14) and Youth (U-17) categories, which are strictly for secondary schools only and juniors (U-20), which is open to all other teenagers.
“For example, we have seen a systematic pattern of an unusually high number of SS2 and SS3 students claiming to be 13 and 14 years old respectively. We have seen athletes who were 14 in 2021 claiming to still be 14 now, 18-year-olds who have finished secondary school already claiming to be 13 so that they can run against the cadets, and we have seen many athletes competing for schools they are not part of and in the wrong age categories as well.
“One of such schools, which was biggest offender in this area, is currently in the process of being disqualified, which will be announced shortly.”