Dr. Coach Ofori Asare, the national boxing coach of the Black Bombers and a coach at the Wisdon Boxing Gym were given another millage after being featured on the ‘PODOMATIC’, an American Radio show that hosts boxing from around the world.
The new podcast has guests from The Boxing Rundown, Wisdom Boxing Gym labelled by the host as “Top Ghana Gym”, Chordale ‘The Gift’ Booker, Kali Reis, Troy K. Fox, Jessica ‘The Cobra’ Camara, Derick Starling and many more.
With Dr. Coach Ofori Asare on national duty, Coach Frank Asante (Assistant Coach), Joshua Quartey (4x National Commonwealth games 2018) Middle Weight, Theophilus Allotey (2x national Light flyweight Champion) an aspiring Olympian, Caleb Mensah (Sportsmanship and Boxer of the Tournament nominee GABA 2021), Adolphus Amarh (Best Juvenile Boxer GABA 2021), Coach Amerley Turkson- Coach, President of Referee Association of Ghana), Coach Emmanuel Adjei -Coach (Wisdom Juvenile Team).
Sarah Lotus Asare, the multi-tasked boxing administrator for Wisdom Boxing Gym who doubles as the Greater Accra Boxing Association’s Assistant Administrator spoke to Podomatic;
“I am the administrator for Wisdom Boxing Gym, I do that on the side, but my real profession is a researcher and a travel consultant. We are one of the very popular as well as fighting powerhouses in Ghana with seventy boxers in the juvenile, youth, and elite boxing category. 20 of them are in the professional and the youth and juvenile, basically that is our summary.
“In the gym for instance, we have 14 boxing gyms in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana all located around Bukom, James Town. A lot of our boxers do not come from this enclave, there are some of our boxers who are from the Northern region, and mostly they relocate to learn the sport, so we make available facilities for them to learn. It is not a profit venture and because of that our doors are always open to all that are interested in learning boxing.”
She further indicated in the interview; “Out of the numerous regions in Ghana, all boxing activities are centered in Accra due to the lack of facilities, equipments and support from parents who would not allow they wards engage in boxing. We need more expertise and gyms, but this has been very difficult as there are no financial stimulators or support from any corporate entity. We have to provide gums, head gears and gloves to all persons willing to learn.”
Samuel Takyi’s heroics at the just ended Tokyo Olympics has not gone unnoticed as Sarah was asked about the ‘Ring Warrior’, she added, “Samuel is a really special boxer, especially building his fan base even before the Olympics and the support from the grassroots. That is important for every sportsman. Him winning bronze at the Olympics is a win for all of us because it shows that when you are dedicated, and you invest so much in something or someone they would be able to come out and be successful. Before qualifying to the Olympics, he did very well at the qualifiers in Dakar, Senegal knocking out the number one seed in Africa to qualify.”
With many young and upcoming boxers looking up to world title winners and Olympians, Sarah Lotus Asare added, “for a lot of these young ones, it is something that is motivating them knowing that once they find themselves in our gym they are in a good spot because they have all these Olympians that they can look up to. In addition to the three athletes that qualified to the Olympics, this increases the number of Olympians our gym has produced over the years. Six Olympians have come through our gym and these are people that the young ones trains with, boxers like Bastir Samir, Issah Samir his elder brother, Abdul Wahid Omar, Sulemanu Tetteh the current captain of the Black Bombers etc. Seeing them achieve their aims, I am really excited about it because prior to the games we did a video as a way to show their support, when Samuel picked up the bronze medal, they termed the Ghana team as the most successful boxing Olympic team that Ghana has who qualified to the round of 16, many have showered this praise because we presented a small team that did so much. It is something that everyone including the young ones at the gym were excited about and they showed that in their video.”
We as Ghanaians have lived in unity and created a name for ourselves as many throng the streets during sporting events with many staying in vigil to show their support.
“Yes, whenever there is the need we rise to the occasion. One thing is that, in the community where we are located, there are over 18 boxing clubs and we do a lot of programs together so the current upcoming boxers are not going to be individualistic but they will realize the importance of community. If you want to be the best you also need people around you, to sharpen your skills, others to train with and we put programs such as ‘SAKA’, it is an educational program which allows boxers in school receive grants to study and every Sundays, boxers from various gyms meet at a particular gym to train together.”
Ghana is gradually bouncing back in the ring and the world is catching a glimps of it.
Written by: Nana Kojo Sakyie Eduafo-Quansah
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