My kickboxing opponents in Bahrain run because of my intense training sessions - Ghanaian father narrates

Being a father with an inherent knack for survival, Solomon Dieudonne Ametepey has sought nearly every possible opportunity to ensure that there is food at home.

His sojourns have been many, including one that took him to Bahrain on a mission to participate in a kickboxing competition.

What was supposed to turn out to be a highly-anticipated competition for him, with great hopes that he would emerge victorious, took unusual turns when his contenders all backed out.

Speaking exclusively to GhanaWeb’s Kwame Adzaho-Amenortor, Solomon said that it was because of how intense his trainings were which scared them off.

“After the call for the fight, I travelled to Bahrain in 2019 without a coach and assistant. After training, I would put my mat on the floor using a skipping rope to fasten it to the wall. I saw some people doing judo and other martial arts and all I would do was to use my shin to hit the mat several times, against the wall.

“When it got to my time to fight, I was in the ring when several calls were made for my opponent to show up for the match, but he didn’t show up so it was cancelled. He was scared to fight me because of the way he was seeing me train for the fight.

“Even after that, I was supposed to fight one military man but during his training, he broke leg so it didn’t come on… you train hard, you get it easy,” he explained.

Solomon also detailed how he had to return to Ghana without anything to his name and how, for his survival, he learnt how to peel coconut to access its water with the use of his bare teeth.





Watch the full interview below:

You can also watch the latest episode of People & Places here:

You can also catch up on the second episode of Everyday People below:





AE/OGB