By Seyifunmi Odunuga
An Ibadan born boxer, Ayanfe Adeoye, popularly known as Battleboy who is in a super lightweight category will May 1st, 2021 have his first professional fight against Ghanaian boxer, Emmanuel Allotey in Ghana.
A six rounds bout will come up at Lebanon house Accra, Ghana around 5:00pm Nigerian time.
Adeoye, a young talented boxer aged 20 years, popularly known as battleboy, while speaking online from Ghana before the fight said he is optimistic about coming out victoriously and promise to dedicate the victory to Almighty God and Nigeria as his country.
According to him, “My ambition is to make boxing move to number sport in Nigeria. I want to be a great example to the younger ones that you can still be a boxer and be a decent person. It’s a sport and not for “thugs” like most people perceive. And most importantly, I want to make boxing great in Nigeria like other greatest Nigerian born boxer.
“I am looking up to the likes of the greatest Muhammed Alli, Lennox Lewis and Sugar Ray Leonard and my brother and a role model, ‘The Champ’ Anthony Joshua”.
Speaking on boxing development in Nigeria, the battleboy said he put all the blame on the government as the government alone cannot do everything but appeal to the government to also pay attention to boxing like football because there are lots of potentials and talents in boxing as well.
“I won’t like to put it all on the government. Even corporate brands can come in and sponsor stand out boxers. It doesn’t have to be financially, but it could be boxing gears, supplement and other training facilities”.
