Gideon Quartey, President of Africa Golden Gloves Warrior specialists in the development of amateur boxing is advocating for effective and efficient organization of boxing throughout Ghana if the fistic sport is to regain its prestige and produce more world champions.
Mr. Quartey whose outfit have regularly staged programmes enhancing amateur boxing and which are on the verge or re-launching an amateur boxing league, says the quality of boxers is on the wane in this country and is calling for a renaissance leading to the revival of boxing and it’s winning more international laurels for Ghana.
“Most of our boxers are fading out and there are no signs of those to replace them. Out top boxers are old boxers, they are not fresh, they are old hands. Boxers like Azumah Nelson and Ike Quartey were hard knock fighters, can we say same about our current boxers?,” Gideon Quartey quizzed rhetorically in an exclusive interview with www.sportsinghana.com.
He continued: “How many professional boxers do we have in Ghana? What are their age groups and are they world championship material? Even locally, what plans are there for their development? These are the questions we should be asking.”
Mr. Quartey who is also Chairman of Dade Boxing Promotions syndicate which promotes both amateur and professional boxing remains adamant that the sport is suffering retrogression and may soon escalate into more disaster if steps are not taken to arrest the situation.
Chief among his suggestions for a repair is the investment in the sport all over the country in order to tap talents from a wide source. “Over the past 10 or 15 years, has there been any boxing promotion in any of the regions apart from Accra? The problem is that everything is concentrated in Accra, if we’re organizing boxing in the regions, the pool for competition and talent will expand. We should be staging fights in Kumasi, Tamale, Cape Coast, Takoraddi, Ho, everywhere,” Gideon Quartey asserts.
The Africa Golden Gloves Warrior chief added: “We challenge the new (Ghana Boxing Authority) Board to look at the sport from regional level and let boxing be active and organized in the regions like it is in Accra. At least all the regions deserve better, Shittu and many other boxers were produced in places like Tamale in times past.”
