Nigeria’s professional boxing sensation, Raheem Animashaun, popularly known as ‘Baddo’, emerged the youngest boxing champion in West Africa when he claimed the West African Boxing Union light-welterweight title on Sunday at the Gymnasium Hall of the National Institute for Sports, Lagos.
Fighting in front of hundreds of boxing enthusiasts in a fight promoted by De-Lads Boxing Promotions, the 16-year-old recorded a sixth-round technical knockout against Richman Ashelley of Ghana after the latter refused to continue in the seventh round.
Speaking shortly after the fight, Baddo said that although he could not keep to his promise of knocking out his opponent in the fifth round, the strategy he adopted by weakening him from round one paid off as he pummelling his opponent to submission.
“My initial plan was to end the fight before the fifth round, but my experienced opponent avoided my knockout blows, which prompted me to revert to weakening his ribs and other parts of his body.”