Bukom Banku, Clottey ignite calls to ban boxing as a sport

What fun or pleasure is there in two men or two women punching each other in the head and inflicting pain on each other just for money?

If you are a boxing lover or keen follower of the sport you might have been asked this question or come across it on a social media platform.

You are most likely to get this rhetorical question from people whose admiration for the sport is zilch.

For such people, boxing is a violent act that should not even be considered a sport or entertainment. People of this school of thought mostly tend to hate kickboxing and wrestling or any sport that involves pain or threat of harm.

You are most likely to get irked or shocked by their dislike for a sport that in all its essence promotes competition and serves more fun than perhaps any other sport but if you speak to a professional boxer who has had his head and chin battered by an opponent, you would understand them.

A picture of Tyson Fury wobbling Wilder’s lips with a heavy punch has gone viral and used by anti-boxing crusaders as a testament of the dangers of boxing but here in Ghana, some boxers have shared their experience in the ring and it’s bitter albeit funny.

Boxing is a crazy sport

Hate or love, Bukom Banku is a legend in his own right. If local boxing is still thriving then Banku is one of the reasons. A torchbearer for the sport and one of the few enigmatic figures left in the sport.

Banku has close to forty fights under his belt so when he says boxing is a ‘crazy sport’, he is speaking out of experience and not mere rhetoric. “Boxing is a very crazy, stupid and idiotic work, I haven’t insulted anybody,” he said in 2017 .

Boxing can make you mad

According to Ayittey Powers, it’s an act of divinity that has kept him alive and sane from all the blows he has received from his bouts.

Powers reckons boxing can make one mentally unstable.

He said during one of his bouts, he nearly lost his sanity after being handed a heavy punch.



Boxing is madness

Joshua Clottey is one of nine Ghanaians to have won a world title.

In the course of his career, he fought some of the best in his division including Manny Pacquaio.

Clottey may have made a name from boxing but he is definitely not a fan of the sport.

He loathes the sport so much so that he won’t even allow his child to become one.

“I have a son in the US, I will kill him if he decides to be a boxer. Even my friend, I will not advise him to be a boxer. That’s why I always tell people not to be jealous of boxers because our job is too tough. Boxing is natural, there’s no artificial.

“Everything you see is real. Sometimes after the rounds 5 and round 6 we feel like giving up but we go on because we have to behave like men.