Boxing fans call for better bouts

Boxing fans in Accra have appealed to the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) and promoters to ensure that better bouts worth their monies are staged.

According to the fans, most bouts staged are mismatches exposing the lives of some boxers to death and adding that there is the need for competitive bouts to give local boxers a fair idea of their strength.

The fans who spoke to the GBNA Sports after last Friday's international bouts said boxers brought in from Nigeria, Togo, Benin and other countries are not better matches for their local opponent and this makes it difficult for a fair judgement on the preparedness of the Ghanaian boxers for world titles.

They contend that the use of unqualified and unprepared boxers might also be dangerous to the boxers since any blow might unexpectedly end their career..

Some fans threaten to stop patronising boxing events if such uncompetitive bouts are continually organised just for the sake of making money.

In a reaction, Mr. Moses Foh-Amoaning, 2nd vice chairman of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) accepted the fact that some of the bouts are mismatches, while some of the opponents do not have qualities of good boxers.

Mr. Foh-Amoaning told the GNA Sports in an interview that, they have made strenuous efforts to ensure that these problems are minimised but organisers always find their way out and at the end of the day the same problems are revisited.

He said despite attempts by the authorities to minimise the problems by demanding authentic fight records of boxers, especially those brought from other countries, the promoters sometimes fake these records. " The GBA even demands confirmation from boxing associations of these records but at the end of the day, it would be discovered that the boxers are not the best materials," the GBA scribe stated.

Mr. Foh-Amaoning said it is in this vein that the GBA orders mandatory fights so that fans and the boxers would be given better fights. The GBA vice chairman said the authority is trying to work out arrangements with countries such as Uganda and South Africa very good boxers to battle Ghanaians boxers.

He expressed the hope that a lasting solution would be found to the problem. On his part, Mr. Alfred Martey, Manager of Prince and Baseline promotion syndicate, said the problem has been a headache for promoters in the country but stated that it all boils down to finance.

He said there are equally good boxers Benin, Togo and other neighbouring African countries but most of them charge exorbitant fees before coming to fight in Ghana adding they are forced to go in for other boxers whose charges are reasonable.

Mr. Martey said apart from the fees they charge, the hotel and food expenses has to be catered for by the promoters adding that "at the end of the promotion we get nothing". "Most of the boxing events we organise generates nothing but we do it for the love of the sport and to help develop talents", he stated. He said there are tough and competitive local bouts but the boxers refuse to fight because they prefer to select opponents of their choice.