Annor retains title

Former World Boxing Organisation (WBO) flyweight champion, Alfred “Cobra” Kotey, found old age and a slippery ring very troubling, and in the end lost to his long-standing rival, Gideon “Shark” Annor, in a hotly disputed verdict at the Kaneshie Sports Complex last Friday night.

Annor maintained his title as the national and West Africa super featherweight champion with a unanimous decision, but that was not without controversy as a section of the fans, including some top boxing personalities, disputed the verdict.

In that angry and protesting group were former champions, Eddy Blay and Ike Quartey, who felt Kotey was the better of the two and the 117-114, 116-115, 118-111 decision in favour of Annor was not a proper reflection of the fight.

It was Kotey who showed enough promise on the night, pleasing the fans with some well-rehearsed ring- craft and power punch. But when Annor breezed himself into the fight in the latter part of the second round, the Cobra realised the Shark was not going to be an easy meal.

The Shark was found wanting in the third round when the Cobra unleashed a flurry of punches to his body. From then, it appeared the former world champion was on his way to sweet victory until he slipped to the canvas.

The slip took steam out of Kotey severely slowing him down to the advantage of Annor, who looked sharper and firmer on the canvas.

Kotey showed little sign of recovery in the fifth round and launched a fierce attack to catch up on his younger opponent only to lose energy again to another slip in the seventh.

His dominance was halted by a knockdown in the 12th round.

In the end, the verdict did little to settle the controversy and bad blood between supporters of the two boxers which also brought up the sharp division among boxing gurus with regards to fights between the two boxers.

While the Annor-Kotey bout gave a perfect climax to a rare evening of boxing extravaganza promoted by Osei Kwame Despite, owner of Peace FM, an Accra-based radio station, several of the undercards provided a lot of excitement and thriller to the thousands of fans who stormed the Kaneshie Complex.

In one of those fights Ayittey Powers, who has seen little success in his boxing career, managed a face saving draw with hard-puncher, Ashiaquaye Aryee in an eight-round welterweight contest.

Powers floored his opponent in the fourth round, but the combative Aryee came back strongly in later rounds to push the fight into a draw.

In another thriller, James Toney, fighting his second bout after the Sydney Olympic Games fiasco, stopped his Beninios opponent, M’boum Moulawa, in the third round of their middleweight contest.

Others saw Anyetei Laryea winning a TKO over Adamu Mohammed in their super featherweight six-rounder, while Samuel Danso secured a third professional win with a TKO over Dauda Arday.

In a lightweight contest, Salifu Zakaria secured a unanimous decision over Roland Mills, while Osumanu Akaba won a TKO over Memudu in an international featherweight contest.