TITLE: Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko asks Ghana to pay more attention to
boxing prior to his comeback
BY: ORAL OFORI
STORY:
Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko; a Ghanaian professional boxer has called on
the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) and the government of Ghana to devote
more attention to the boxing because it has a great potential to
create world champions as well as generate revenue and business for
the country.
Onetime IBO and two time IBF Bantamweight World Champion Agbeko will
be making his return in the USA on Saturday, May 16 in El Paso, Texas
at the Southwest University Event Center in his fight with Juanito
Rubillar. Agbeko has fought on Showtime and HBO against the likes of
Abner Mares, Vic Darchinyan, Yonny Perez and Guillermo Rigondeaux.
In a recent tweet on his official Twitter page, the boxer expressed
his frustration over the lack of attention given the sport as shown
below in his tweet below:
Kazakhstan National Boxing Team on training tour. Ghana Amateur Team
is definitely sleeping by now pic.twitter.com/oPrNYpCy2H
— Joseph Agbeko (@Kingkong4real) April 7, 2015
In a bid to find out the reasons behind his tweet and catch up with
the former world champion who is also a chief in the town of Sogakope
in the Volta Region of Ghana, the owner and editor of
#TheAfricanDream; Oral Ofori, made a phone call to him in his USA base
in Las Vegas. During the call the boxer revealed how heartbroken he
has become about how badly boxing has retrogressed in Ghana today.
“I made the tweet after I trained with the national boxing team of
Kazakhstan here in Las Vegas Nevada during their training tour when
they stopped by here at the Roy Jones Boxing Gym where I also train”,
the boxer said to #TheAfricanDream. The boxer who is now with Roy
Jones Jnr Promotions said “even though I was happy to train with
another country’s team, I felt I would have been happier to see more
Ghanaian boxers on international training tours even if I don’t
necessarily train with them.”
Agbeko said “Ghana has had greats like DK Poison, Roy Ankrah, Azuma
Nelson, Ike Quartey, Nana Yaw Konadu and many others who brought a lot
of honor, medals and revenue to it because of the attention the sports
received in their times. Today all that needed attention has been lost
in the past decade and half and the boxing authorities are being
over-reliant on government alone, not realizing the huge opportunity
that lies in the private sectors of the country.”
Explaining further, Agbeko said “it seems football receives the bulk
of attention from sporting authorities in Ghana, but there is a lot of
money in the private sectors that could be roped in to help advance
boxing. The GBA needs a more powerful team to market and promote the
game in a more exciting way to lure the private sector to pour money
into it because beside soccer, boxing is a greatly loved sport in
Ghana and Africa.”
The best place to start the revival is at the amateur level, if Ghana
can create more awareness, more attention and above all more support
even for the young boys and women who show their love and passion for
boxing on the streets of Bukom in Accra, Ghana and other parts of the
country, organize more competitions, provide logistical and moral
support, then the path to recovery will begin “King Kong” suggested.
During the phone interview, #TheAfricanDream asked Joseph Agbeko
whether it was true if he had been asked to fight under the USA flag,
he responded saying some people have asked him to change his
nationality to improve his fan base but his love for Ghana is
unquenched and he shall never fight for any other country besides “my
motherland Ghana.”
When asked who in his opinion is the best boxer on earth now, Joseph
Agbeko loudly burst out over the phone and said “No doubt Floyd
Mayweather is the best fighter in the world. He's simply the best”. Ha
again laughed when asked whether he has a hobby, to which he answered:
“Am a very boring person, boxing is my life and I eat, sleep and dream
about it always.”
The last time Abgeko fought competitively was on December 11, 2010
when he had a chance to regain his IBF title in a fight with Yonnhy
Pérez in the semi-finals of the Showtime Bantamweight tournament. That
live-televised match from the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma,
Washington in the USA saw him cruise to a unanimous decision victory.
The Ghanaian boxer says he will use this fight to propel himself for a
crack again at the world title because he misses fighting at the world
championship level. He promised his fans world wide to take a world
title back home to Ghana by the close of the year, asking all to
support his comeback fight on May 16, 2015.
