Three UK based boxers and their trainers arrived in Accra on Sunday night ahead of their respective fights against Ghana based opponents on the latest Azumah Nelson Fight Night come Saturday night at the Bukom Boxing Arena.
Irish super featherweight, John Hicks who will face Ghana super featherweight champ, Wahab Oluwaseum in the headliner, Kieran ‘Lights Out’ Leinster who will square up against Emmanuel Anim of Ghana and London based southpaw, Anthony Ayinde who is billed to take on hard hitting Raphael Kwabena King all landed at the Kotoka International Airport and are settling in town ahead of their African tests at the weekend.
Oliver Duffy who was billed to fight against Azumah Nelson Jnr in an amateur undercard, was forced to pull out of the trip due to injuries he suffered in a car accident just last weekend. The son of the legendary 3-time world champion and Hall of Famer will still have the opportunity to showcase his skills in an amateur lightweight contest against compatriot, Prosper Dzivor.
Also confirmed to be on the bill to complete the Ghana-UK line-up is Philip Owusu, born in the UK to Ghanaian parents who was already in Ghana on holidays and has now been pencilled down as a representative of the UK based team to fight in an amateur middleweight contest against Nii Ofei Addo.
Felix Okine versus Wasiru Mohammed in a super bantamweight contest completes the bill for Saturday’s fight event which is the 4th in the series championed by Azumah Nelson Boxing and Hemann Promotions with the sole objective of making Accra the capital of African boxing and putting Ghana boxing back on the world map. After the successes of the two tournaments at the Kempinski Gold Coast City Hotel last year, the 3rd fight show which has Nelson himself picking the fighters debuted at the Bukom Boxing Arena back in April this year featuring among them boxers from Lebanon.
Ahead of a presentation of the UK boxers at a press conference on Tuesday morning at the Accra City Hotel, Heta Hema-Mann, CEO of Hemanns Promotions couldn’t be happier after maintaining the promise to match-up Ghana’s top talents against equally good competition right here in Accra.
“The boxers have arrived safely, they are already enjoying Ghana, the fight, tickets and other arrangements are all going well and we are ready to rumble in Accra on Saturday night,” Heta Hema-Mann said at the Kotoka International Airport in the Ghana capital.
“We are still on the crusade to bring boxing back and get the recognition and support as it did back when Prof (Azumah) was fighting. We bring good boxers to fight our boys right here and in that way we prepare them to be ready for anything when they go outside to fight and we are also reviving boxing,” the Hemann Promotions boss added.
