Sports
Benn To Make Boxing Comeback At 55
Nigel Benn has been described as the “fittest 55-year-old on planet Earth” as he prepares for a shock ring return.
The ex-world champion has not fought professionally since November 1996 but will resume his career on 23 November, according to his promoter Mark Peters.
“I wouldn’t support Nigel if I didn’t believe he was fit to box,” he added.
The British Boxing Board of Control (BBBoc) is against the fight, which will be sanctioned by the rival British and Irish Boxing Authority (Biba).
Benn – whose last fight was a defeat by Irishman Steve Collins 23 years ago – has passed all Biba’s medical tests, while there will be a specialist in head trauma and a portable brain scanner available at ringside on fight night.
Former world champion Sakio Bika, 40, has been tipped to be his opponent.
Peters, his promoter and long-time friend, told BBC Sport the story should be seen as a a positive one, and that even at 55, London-born Benn is still in a condition that most men half his age would envy.
“It’s not like Nigel left the sport, hung up his gloves and never trained again,” he said. “He must be the fittest 55-year-old on planet Earth.
“He has still been training twice a day and he will shadow box anywhere.
“I wouldn’t support Nigel if I didn’t believe he was fit to box. Nor is he doing this for financial reasons. He is far from skint – in fact, he has just built a massive 10-bedroom property for himself in Australia, where he lives.
“It’s his life and his prerogative to fight.
“From his point of view, this is closure for him,” he said.
Benn was part of a golden generation in the super-middleweight division in the 1990s, his all-action style leading to big fights with the likes of Collins and Chris Eubank.
There were attempts to arrange a fight with both of those two on this occasion, while an approach was also made to American Roy Jones Jr.
Instead, Benn is expected to face Cameroon-born Bika, who lost on points to the unbeaten Welsh former world champion Joe Calzaghe in 2006, and whose last fight was in 2017.
Biba – a rival to the BBBoC launched in 2016 – said it was happy to licence the fight, despite Benn’s age.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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