Ex-ABU Champion dies

Accra, April 20, GNA - Eric Boone, former African Boxing Union (ABU) Featherweight Champion is reported dead.

Boone (Ring-name), 51, known privately as Eric Kwasi Kwawutse, died at the Ho Municipal Hospital in March, after a short illness.

He was a member of the Ghanaian boxing contingent at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal Canada, which did not participate in the games, due to an African boycott.

After a one year training programme in Austria and Germany, under the sponsorship of Mr Walter Esposito, a sports philanthropist, he returned to Ghana and represented the country at the All Games in Algeria before joining the paid ranks.

Most of his initial professional fights were in Nigeria, where he won the West African Featherweight crown and later defeated Steve Macloud of Zimbabwe to win the ABU title.

A family spokesman told the Ghana News Agency that Boone, who was married with six children, will be buried at Ho on April 24.