Baba Sumaila Laments Boxing

A Ghanaian amateur boxing trainer, Mr. Baba Sumaila, has appealed to sports enthusiasts and institutions to come to the aid of amateur boxing in Ghana.

Mr. Sumaila who now works with boxing promoter Don King at the United States of America lamented the state of boxing in Ghana, which he described as deplorable and need a critical review for its survival.

The boxing trainer who is back to the country for a national assignment, told The Accra Mail at the weekend that if boxing did not get enough funding it would be difficult to unearth more talents to boost the image of the sport.

According to him there was the need to motivate and encourage talented youths that wish to take boxing as a career but the sport currently lacks funding.

Mr. Sumaila will spend a month of his holiday to voluntarily train Ghanaian amateur boxers who are preparing for the forthcoming Common Wealth Games.

He critised the public for discouraging the boxers rather than giving them moral and financial support.

He said, "the boys are not showing up because many people see boxing as a waste of resources. As a result promising boxers have to hang up their gloves and resort to other careers that they are not talented in."

Mr. Sumaila regretted that there were occasions when boxers of the national team have to work or solicit for funds for transportation after training session.

Commenting on the performance of amateur boxers, he said that it seemed their performance is below standard because of poor training and lack of knowledge about the new technique of computer scoring that was recently introduced into the sport.

He suggested that boxers should be trained to understand how the computer scoring system works so that they could improve their chances of scoring more points during fights.

He also advised amateur boxers to avoid delivering punches to the abdomen of their opponents and instead focus on the jaw and the face because some judges are reluctant to award points for blows aimed at the stomach.

Mr. Sumaila cautioned them to engage their opponents in the middle of the stage and refrain from pinning them to the ring corner because the judge might have a blur sight to judge with accurate point or might not see it at all.

He warned against the use of hard drugs in boxing. According to him some boxers indulged themselves in the use of drugs with the hope to look strong but went into the ring and eventually lost the fight.

He congratulated Mr. Walter Esposito the Acting Chairman for this year's SWAG Awards Committee for his immense contribution towards sports in the country.