72 boxers languish in jail

Boxing is generally believed to be a money-spinning sport. On a single night, on March 13, this year, Ghana’s Joshua Clottey earned $1.5m even though he lost to Philippine’s Manny Pacquiao in a World Boxing Organisation (WBO) welterweight title fight at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

However, the frightening rate at which the nation’s budding boxers are leaving the ‘noble art of self-defence’ into the dishonourable field of armed robbery, leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Investigations conducted by the Times newspaper have revealed that a staggering number of 72 boxers are languishing in the Nsawam detention.

Fifty out of the 72 boxers who spoke to the Times during a visit to the prison last Thursday, said they were forced into armed robbery, stealing and narcotics because of frustrations they faced in the sport.Thirty-five of these boxers are now convicts mostly from Accra, while the rest, including Charles Stellar Azumah, a 26-year-old popular amateur middleweight, is on remand some since 2004. Only 10 of the number maintain that they are in the paid ranks (professionals).

Some of the boxers claim that their frustrations stemmed from their inability to get the necessary training kits and financial support to make their chosen profession worth pursuing.

Other also cited the same reason, but added that the failure of promoters to stage fights “where we can display our strengths or test our skill,” has contributed to the present situation they find themselves in. “If after going through all the hard and harsh training regimen to toughen your body only to end up not getting any fights, the temptation for you to vent your spleen elsewhere becomes very profound,” said Joe Frazer.

Frazer, who claims he was training with the Indigo Boxing Gym in Accra, was jailed in 2007 for armed robbery. The lightweight boxer is one of the 15 boxers serving 30 years imprisonment in hard labour.

Thirty-five-year-old bantamweight, Philip Amartey, who is serving life imprisonment for murder in 1998, told the Times that out of frustration, he pummeled somebody to his death with his bare hands, during an illegitimate fight.

Out of the 72 boxer inmates, only Prince Emmanuel has been jailed for narcotics. The 36-year-old middleweight was carrying drugs to Holland in 2008 when he was arrested. He is serving 35 years. According to Prince, he was lured into narcotics “because I had no one to support me logistically to become the champion that I wanted to be.”

Some of the boxers spotted grisly marks on their faces, arms and legs as a result of mob beatings during their arrest after robbing, before the timely arrival of the police to the crime scene.

Those who were not fortunate enough to be saved by the police were lynched, a source at the Prison said.One of these hapless boxers lynched to death in 2006, was Emmanuel Tetteh, a 22 year old lightweight, who fought on the defunct Mortein Boxing Championships in Accra.

Tetteh, described by boxing connoisseurs as “a potential world beater”, was alleged to have led a gang of armed robbers on an operation but luck eluded them when a neighbourhood watch group gave them a chase and caught him.The young boxer was said to have put up a fierce fight to escape from the claws of the mob but he lost the fight.

Though he was not lynched, former boxer Richard Cobbina, popularly known as Shaka Zulu, was recently arrested by the Accra Regional Police Command over an armed robbery operation which took place a little over a year age. Zulu, a popular face on a TV commercial and known in boxing circles as Costero, trained with the Will Power Boxing Gym form 2000 to 2004.

All the boxers interviewed, however, expressed grave remorse for their actions and cautioned their colleagues to lead lifestyles that would not end them in prison.“Prison is not a good thing. Please tell them to be of good behaviour no matter what situation they find themselves in, because life here is terrible,” Ernest Kofit Atiogbe, a 29 year old lightweight boxer of the Zoom Zoom Gym, who is serving 30 years for armed robbery, advised.

The investigations also revealed that 36 of the boxers, two of whom hail from Nigeria and Togo, come from broken homes and have not completed basic education. They do not also have any life skills to enable them to make a decent living.

Former World Boxing Council (WBC) Inter-continental cruiserweight champion, Napoleon Tagoe, who accompanied the Times to the Nsawam Prison, regretted that successive governments had failed to support boxers “in spite of the fame the sport has brought to the country”.

The 41 year old Tagoe, who is the founder of the Will Power Boxing Gym in Accra, was alarmed at the number of boxers turning to crime and said that the number could soar by the end of the year if nothing was done about the situation.

“Most of these boxers are as strong as steel and they can use their strengths negatively if government fails to invest heavily in the sport by way of equipment and other incentives that will keep them away from crime”, said Tagoe, who identified a number of the boxers in jail.

President of the Ghana Boxing Coaches Association (GBCA), who owns the Attoh Quarshie Gym, Kotey Dzanie, was also convinced that lack of activity was the major cause for boxers to “join the crime bandwagon,” adding that “it is so frustrating to train these boxers only to see them slip into robbery”.Popularly known also as Alloway, the renowned trainer condemned the decision of boxers to rob when faced with hardship, but lamented on the poor quality of boxing gyms, especially in the capital “which is even a disincentive to boxers”.

He, however, denied knowledge of Marcus Tekpey, an inmate who is serving 40 years for armed robbery. The 26 years old Tekpey claimed that he joined the Attoh Quarshie Gym in 2002.

There are 39 boxing gyms in Accra, three of which stand out including the Bridge Foundation and the Seconds Out gyms.However, none of the 36 boxing gyms the Times visited in Accra last Friday could, by any stretch of imagination, be labeled as such. From the Akotoku Academy which produced Ghana’s boxing legend Azumah Nelson to be Bukom Boxing Gym that molded former World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight champion, Ike Quartey, to name a few, there was hardly anything to point to as a quality training apparatus.

Most of them were in a pitiably deplorable state. Ghana is yet to build a national boxing gymnasium, as promised by successive governments. Apart from a make shift platform for a ring, the boxing gloves, boots and clothing look tattered, while the punching bags and other accessories have clearly outlived their usefulness.

Though many of the gyms are in a rickety shape, the boxers surprisingly trained with zeal and passion. It was not too clear whether they were ‘drilling’ their bodies for different adventures outside the sport.

However, one bantamweight boxer at the Panix Gym who only identified himself as Nii Aryee, brushed aside any negative thoughts. He stated that he was going to continue training until he finally got a little fight.

Luckily, he is being sponsored by his Uncle, a dye in the wool follower of the noble art of self defence. Top boxing promoter, Mike Tetteh of Goldenmike Promotions, like others, said the inability to stage fights consistently had contributed in no small way to boxers turning to robbery to make ends meet. He explained that it was highly expensive to promote a fight and appealed to government to support the industry “in order t o save our talented boxers from plunging into crime”.“When a promoter has to pay GH¢5,000 just to acquire the Accra Sports Stadium to stage a single fight, you will agree with me that we would have spent more than GH¢50,000 to make the promotions complete,” he added.

Director of Communications of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA), Mohammed Amin-Lamptey, was stunned to hear about the number of boxers languishing in jail, and appealed to the government to take a serious look at the sport. He said most of the boxers are bread winners of their families, and once they became inactive as a result of lack of fights, they were likely to do anything just to survive.

“That aside, our training gyms are a disaster. They do not encourage boxers who want to continue with their career after sustaining the slightest injury,” Amin-Lampety grieved.

President of Ghana Amateur Boxing Federation (GABF), Ray Quarcoo, said he was not aware of the situation and wondered whether the boxers were really in jail. He declined to comment further.

Like the GABF president, National Sports Council (NDC) Chief Executive Officer, Worlanyo Agra, was oblivious of the state of affairs, but called for a scheme to ensure that “such boxers with prospects do not go to prison”. Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Nii Nortey Dua, wondered whether all the prisoners who claimed to be boxers were really telling the truth.

“Some of them are likely to masquerade as boxers, but they may be something else,” he said, and called for investigation into the situation. Regrettably, most of the boxing gyms in Accra have no proper documentation on their boxers or boxers who train periodically with them.

Checks at the GBA revealed that the authority is now in the process of compiling a comprehensive list of licensed professional boxers.

The Regional Commander and Deputy Director of Operations of the Nsawam Prison, Chris Larvie, warned boxers to be wary of people who engage their services as land guards and for other social vices, adding, “They will dump you when you are arrested.