By Prince Dornu-Leiku – After winning last Friday’s eliminator against Marcus Upshaw to claim the USBO, vacant USBA Middleweight as well as vacant IBO Intercontinental Middleweight titles, Ghana’s Osumanu Adama has thrown a challenge to WBO champ Dmitry Pirog, indicating his readiness to wrestle away the world crown from the Russian’s grasp.
“I am ready for whoever wants to fight me. I’ve told my promoter and anybody he puts in front of me, I will beat him. I want either the WBC or WBO titles, I can beat any of Zbik or Pirog, I am ready,” Adama told SportsInGhana.com via phone from Illinois, USA..
Sebastian Zbik, 30-0, who got elevated to WBC champ status earlier this year, is scheduled for a first defence against Julio Cesar Chavez Jnr on June 4. So a more likely opponent for the 30 year old Adama is WBO champ Dmitry Pirog, 18-0, 14 KOs, who successfully retained his title via a unanimous decision over Argentine Javier Francisco Maciel in Ekaterinburg, Russia, just last Saturday.
Despite stopping Upshaw in the fourth of their scheduled 12-rounder, Adama gives credit to his opponent. He says it wasn’t an easy fight. “He is a very tall and tough guy but I had to prepare very well which made me too strong for him. Definitely I’m happy because most people didn’t believe I could beat the guy because he went to beat some tough guy in Canada so people were afraid of him,” Adama said.
Adama is also grateful for the massive support he received from Ghanaians in the US who thronged the Hanging Gardens in River Grove, Illinois for the fight, amid continuously chanting Ghanaian songs which he says were very inspiring. He is also appreciative to the fans back home in Ghana who were equally supportive with their prayers and well wishes.
But the boxer popularly called Ozzie Adams by his fans, wants to switch the alias to Machine Gun because “my blows are tough and flow, from any angle I can punch you. Machine gun is like that,” Osumanu Adama explained.