Ghana’s leading female boxer Yakor Annan, better known in boxing circles as Yakor Chavez is fired up and ready to seal a mega fight deal when she travels to the USA next month for a training and gym assessment exercise.
Yakor Chavez, currently the only active female boxer in the country, has exclusively disclosed to SportsInGhana.com that she can’t wait to get to the US because this is an opportunity she has been praying for all her boxing career.
“It has always been my ambition to be a world champion and to bring glory to Ghana and there can be no better place to realize this dream than in America. I’m grateful to my manager and especially Golden Punch for having the confidence in me. I promise to make them all proud,” Yakor Chavez has told SportsInGhana.com in Accra.
Yakor Chavez lost a bid for the WBF Female Bantamweight championship against Suzzy Ramadan in Melbourne, Australia last year. She blames the defeat down under on the fact that she went with neither her trainer nor manager due to visa acquisition problems. “My coach and my manager are very important and I missed their motivation and words of inspiration in Australia,” she says.
Her record has however impressed US-based Golden Punch Boxing Promotions who have invited Yakor Annan for a three week gym evaluation and assessment, sparring contests and final medical tests to facilitate a signing of promotional contract for the Ghanaian pugilist.
Golden Punch which is a boxing promotional company based in Orlando, Florida and are specialized in promoting boxing shows in the USA, including shows on Showtime TV, have invited the boxer along with her trainer Nii Boye Osekre Odamtten as well as manager Abdul Rahman Cudjoe. The TEAM YAKOR CHAVEZ trio are expected to arrive in the US on February 14 and return to Ghana on March 7, 2011.
But by then, Coach Nii Boye Osekre Odamtten believes his boxer would have impressed Golden Punch Boxing Promotions officials so much they would have no choice than to offer her a contract. “We have been very serious in training and I can tell you confidently that Yakor is in the best shape of her life. “The experience of fighting in Australia has been immense and we have not rested since she returned so all I can tell Ghanaians is to pray for us and we shall soon bring them the country’s first female world champion,” Osekre Odamtten has boldly pledged.
For Abdul Rahman Cudjoe, Manager of the boxer, Yarkor Chavez gained massive experience from the trip to Australia but she didn’t win because she didn’t fight at her right weight and most importantly because of his absence due to visa acquisition difficulties.
“I have hope and belief in her because she is hardworking, determined and confident. I have no doubt that God willing by the time we go to the US and come back she will get a fight for a world title. The Australia experience was good for her but she lost because I wasn’t there so she missed my advices and encouragement.
“But she is very good, ready and confident and I can tell Ghanaians to expect her to make the nation proud soon,” Mr. Cudjoe said adding that the boxer has been invited again to Australia to fight in her proper weight and also no visa problems for the entire Team Yakor Chavez this time.
