Top US Boxing Promoter, Ike Enwereuzor has charged the Nigeria Boxing Board of Control (NBB of C), on the need to revitalise boxing in Nigeria as it is a viable tool of job creation, revenue generation among the youths thereby building them to become world champions through development of thier potentials.
Popularly known as ‘Jack Boxer’, he revealed his relationship with the board, he said, “I know them and have worked with the people who are managing this organization, I think we have a lot of work to do. One of the ideas I think that the NBBofC will help us achieve is to allow different states to have thier own department, give them a chance to promoters licenses and make the license very affordable for people to be able to purchase because if we make it very expensive, it makes people afraid and chase them away.”
“They will use all the money they have to promoting boxing into just getting a license alone and they don’t have the money to promote these boxers. So I think it will be good to do a nationwide recruitment, to have Imo State, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Ibadan, you know different states in Nigeria and have thier own body so that they can be promoting boxing in those states and you have promoters and the control body that makes sure that they do the sanctioning fee ofncourse they will still come back and report to the NBB of C. So I think if we can get that done it will make a very big difference because if we have like 50 to 100 boxers in Ogun state, same as Ibadan, Ondo, Edo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, you know how many states in Nigeria.”
He continued on the way forward to grow Nigerian boxing, he posits, “Imagine we have like 50 to 100 boxers from every states, then we have a better chance of developing more world champions if we look at Mexico, they are now the richest country because there are so many boxers coming out of there. So why don’t we have a lot of boxers coming out of Nigeria, the latest we have coming out needs support, come out in groups with drums and colors, our flags and let these guys make us proud. NBB of C needs to consider the numbers and hopefully, we can be able to make a change.”
“Nigeria needs to change in boxing, this is something that can make a poor man rich and create a lot of legends for us. Boxing is the highest paid sport like I said earlier, if we are able to encourage these guys, they will be proud of Nigeria because most of them that I speak to don’t want to have anything to do with Nigeria because the country never supported them. Nigeria as a whole needs to support these boxers,” Ike emphasized.
