Haminat Yekini and Blessing Bukola, the super flyweight professional boxers scheduled to meet in a national challenge bout at GOtv Boxing Night 24 on Friday, have declared readiness to show that they can perform as robustly as their male counterparts. The boxers also thanked the sponsors for offering them the platform to show their skills.
Speaking in separate interviews in Lagos on Tuesday, the boxers said they are delighted to have had an opportunity to be part of the show, which holds at the Molade Okoya Indoor Sports Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
The show, which will feature seven bouts and live musical performance by Jamopyper, will be broadcast live on SuperSport across Africa.
Haminat, who spoke after her training on Tuesday, said Nigerian female boxers have been seeking wider opportunities and are delighted to have been given.
“We appreciate what the sponsors have done. We will show that we are as good as our male counterparts by putting up a good fight,” she said.
Blessing also expressed similar sentiments, saying that the opportunity to be seen across Africa is a big one for female boxing in Nigeria.
“We hope that after this show, promoters across Africa will know how good Nigerian female boxers are and invite us for their own promotions,” she said.
The biggest fight on the night will be the World Boxing Federation (WBF) International title defence between the reigning champion, Nigeria’s Rilwan “Baby Face” Babatunde and Justice “Qwick Action” of Ghana.
Two other title bouts are scheduled. Abiodun “Infiniti” Afinni will face Michael “Emirate” Godwin in the national cruiserweight title, while David “Awosika” Cosmos face Segun “Success” Olanrewaju in the national light heavyweight title bout.
Also lined up are two duels in the welterweight category, which will see Semiu “Jagaban” Olapade take on Taiwo “Gentle Boy” Olowu, while Willian “Kaki” Amosu takes on Segun “War” Adeyemi.
In the bantamweight division, Saheed “Eagle” Azeez will face Aminu “Lucky Boy” Akintayo.
The best boxer at the event, to be picked by a nine-man panel, will go home with a cash prize of N1million and the Mojisola Ogunsanya Ogunsanya Memorial Trophy.
