Ace sports journalist, Saddick Adams, has made an interesting, yet funny allegation about former Ghanaian boxer, Michael Ayittey Okine, popularly known as Ayittey Powers.
Saddick Adams claimed that at the peak of his boxing prowess, Ayittey Powers developed a scheme that allowed him to make money from boxers in Australia.
According to him, Ayittey Powers was in the business of importing Tongue and Groove (T&G) ceiling materials. To get the money to do the importation, Ayittey Power is said to have taken on fights with veteran Australian boxers.
“Ayittey Powers used to import T&G from Australia. There was no POP then so T&G was the product people used. He normally didn’t go with money so what he did was to fight their veteran boxers to get money to buy the products,” he said.
Saddick Adams was commenting on the controversial bout between Ghanaian boxer, Bastie Samir, and Nigerian boxer, Rasheed Idowu.
Rasheed won the fight via a second-round knockout after he floored Bastie Samir with a combination of punches to end their vacant Universal Boxing Organization [UBO] African Light Heavyweight title fight.
While fans waited for Rasheed Idowu to be declared the winner, the Nigerian boxer was denied a win as the fight was announced as a technical draw, much to the dismay of many.
A technical draw is a term used in boxing when a fight has to be stopped because a fighter is unable to continue from an accidental injury (usually cuts) or a foul.
In an interview with JoySports, the Ghana Boxing Authority president, Abraham Kotei Neequaye, explained that the technical draw decision had to be taken because the teeming home fans who came out to watch Bastie Samir fight had threatened violence.
“There was a threat of a violent outburst because the home boxer had lost, because of which this bout was declared a technical draw,” the GBA president said.
EK