Ghana Professional Boxing League, Dead on arrival?
Ghana’s version of a “Don King” in-terms of boxing promotions is synanimous with the young boxing guru Alex Ntiamoah-Boakye of Box Office Sports Promotions. He is currently the President of the Boxing Promoters Association of Ghana
So when I got the opportunity to have an interaction with him I couldn’t resist the temptation of asking about the Ghana Professional Boxing league hence my first question was:
Que: As the new President of Promoters Association of Ghana, what is your opinion of the Professional Boxing League..Are your members ready to take advantage of the league…..business wise?
“It’s not the best for Ghana Boxing, it’ll retrogress boxing in Ghana as it’s not properly structured” He said.
That got me very intrigued hence I posed a follow up:
Que: Were you and your outfit not consulted before the program was finalized? Then responded
“There wasn’t a broad stakeholder consultation on it. Mortem Boxing League was structured unlike this one, it’s dead on arrival.”
At this point, it was more of a discussion and I really wanted more insight.
Why didn’t you not make known these concerns when you were consulted? I quizzed then followed up
You are a very experienced boxing guru, which begs the question…. elaborate why it’s “dead on arrival”
“The Morten structure was open for green horn boxers, debutants and boxers who have fought maximum 3-4 fights and it’s a way to nurture fighters.
This one is the opposite as it’s open to all class of boxers and as it’s registered in the name of the clubs, so when club A is to meet club B and the club A brings A class boxer whiles club B has a class C boxer then they have to fight which is a mismatch and that would give a bad TV presentation to boxing whilst killing talents (debutant boxers). Most of the boxers don’t like the league, many of the fighters when paired against an elite opponent have hinted they’ll fake injury to avoid it and that would spoil the TV programming.”
“Check this pairing, it’s of great safety concern for the debutants. For the class A boxers it will deny them the opportunity to fight for international championships as most sanctioning bodies require you to fight for 8 or more rounds in your last 2 or 3 fights with credible opponents and so fighting for 6 rounds against debutants and at 6 rounds would block their chances whiles they beat the class C boxers to kill talents.” He brilliantly explained.
Finally I asked him, What is the way forward ?
We would need to call on the leadership of the GBA for a forum to discuss but they’ve refused to reply our letters (Promoters Association) and so we will seek the audience of NSA to intervene”- he lamented.
Professional boxing until the last few months have allegedly undergone clandestine issues of which this very subject is no exception and it is the hope that the laurel acquisition hub in Ghana sports will rise to its fullest times in the not too distant future.
It must therefore be pointed out that these are the legitimate concerns of many stakeholders and connoisseurs that I have interviewed but do not want to go on record. My next step is the GBA.
Watch the space