FEATURE: Boxing isn’t dead, after all!
WHEN I saw the crowd at the Bukom Boxing Arena last Sunday, I realised what boxing has been missing locally all these years.
For the second time since the Bukom Boxing Arena was inaugurated, the venue was full to capacity during George ‘Red Tiger’ Ashie’s eighth round technical knockout win over nemesis Robert ‘Stopper’ Quaye.
Advertisement
The fight brought the arena to a standstill due to the quality of the match up. It was also a grudge bout which saw two Bukom natives slugging it out for the bragging rights.
I was not surprised at the massive turnout, especially when the two boxers had done enough to market and sell the event to Ghanaians, including the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who graced the occasion.
The first time I saw a similar crowd at a boxing event at the Bukom Boxing Arena was in April 2018 when Isaac ‘Royal Storm’ Dogboe stopped Mexico’s Cesar Juarez in five rounds of their WBO Interim super bantamweight championship.
That was a super event which brought the legendary American boxing referee Tony Weeks to Ghana to take charge of the bout.
Since that card, I haven’t seen any sold out boxing event at the Bukom Boxing Arena in the last four years until last Sunday.
That should send a signal that boxing promoters and managers may not be doing something right. What could be leading to these frequent poor turnouts at events?
Poor match-ups
It was obvious that matchmakers, managers and promoters of boxers are not pairing the right fighters to fight and that contributes to the low patronage we usually witness at events.
If pairing our best boxers in each weight classes would give us good shows and fill the arena, what prevents promoters from doing that?
In recent times, it has been evident that matchmakers and promoters do not give spectators good fights to attract them to the venues and we have to learn from the Ashie vs Quaye pairing.
Alex Ntiamoah-Boakye of Box Office Sports Promotions continues to pave the way for other promoters to follow in staging the top bouts in the country but to no avail.
Most of the big shows witnessed in the country recently were all brought together by Ntiamoah-Boakye with the likes of Brimah ‘Bukom Banku’ Kamoko v Michael ‘Powers’ Ayitey, Michael ‘One Bullet’ Ansah against Sherif ‘One Time’ Quaye and Bastie ‘The Beast’ Samir facing Brimah Kamoko as examples.
This is not to say we haven’t witnessed big boxing events in the country but the pairings are usually mismatches targeted at favouring particular boxers.
A lot of efforts must be put into staging sold out bouts and boxers agreeing to fight themselves is the only way to go. They must set the pace for their managers and promoters to follow.
Intervention
At the end of the day, it has been proven that the right fights will bring the crowd to boxing events and not the nation that the sport is dead in the country.
There is no dispute about having talents in the country because Samuel Takyi’s achievement at last year’s Olympic Games showed that Ghana remains a giant in the sport at the international level.
What is the state doing to maintain that assertion? The onus is on every stakeholder to ensure boxers get the needed nurturing they deserve to get to the top.
One of that is going in for the right fights to prepare them for future endeavours but most managers and promoters think otherwise.
All they care about is building an undefeated record for their boxers against half-baked opponents so they can milk them at world championships.
But what happen to the boxers after those bouts? They are usually battered in the United States (US) or the United Kingdom (UK) whenever they travel for international fights.
This is not helping the image of Ghana boxing and the earlier boxers get to understand the need to fight credible opponents, the better for their careers.
After all, boxing, a sport which has done a lot to Ghana’s image, is still intact and could be better if the right bouts could be staged.
