The 16th edition of GOtv Boxing Night has been slated for the Indoor Sports Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, the organizers announced in Lagos on Tuesday.
The hugely successful boxing fest tagged Independence Edition will hold on Sunday, 14 October with the overall best boxer of the night smiling home with N1.5million naira and the Mojisola Ogunsanya Memorial Trophy.
And in a dramatic departure from the past editions, boss of FlyKite Promotions Mr Jenkins Alumona announced that the 16th edition will be focused on new boxing talents most of whom will dominate the nine-bout bill.
According to Alumona, GOtv Boxing Night 16 will feature nine bouts, the highest ever number since the event debuted in 2014.
The biggest of the fights is the international lightweight challenge bout between African Boxing Union (ABU) champion, Nigeria’s Oto “Joe Boy” Joseph and Ghana’s Anama Dotse. While flamboyant Rilwan “Real One” Oladosu of Nigeria is expected to defend his West African Boxing Union (WABU) lightweight title against Ghana’s Benjamin Lamptey.
Other scheduled bouts are the national light heavyweight title bout, which pits Kabiru “KB Godson”Towolawi against Adewale “Masevex” Masebinu. Waidi “Skoro” Usman who recently lost an African super featherweight title fight in South Africa returns to the local scene again to face local boy Chibuzor “T Boy” Obi.
The highlight of the night’s exciting bouts will be the new discoveries mainly from the various NextGen series organized to discover fresh faces.
Prominent among the new boxers lined up for the day is Opeyemi ” Sense” Elijah, best boxer at GOtv Boxing NextGen 4, who will take on Sheriff “Oshe” Ogunbanjo in a super bantanweight duel.
Other bouts are Taiwo “Esepo” Agbaje who campaigns in the lightweight division who will take on Tope “TP Rock” Musa.
Other graduates of GOtv Boxing NextGen like Azeez “Who Say So” Tijani is scheduled to square up with former national team amateur fighter Waheed “Showmax” Shogbanmu, while Isaac “I Star” Chukwudi confronts Adeyemi “Spirit” Adekanla in the welterweight category.
The super flyweight division will see Aminu “Lucky Boy” Akintayo against Mutiu “Machine” Lawal.
While the 15th edition of the boxing Night held in Ibadan, the organizers believe Lagos should host the dress rehearsal of the grand finale which will come up later in the year.
Meanwhile, the president of Nigeria Boxing Board of Control (NBB of C) Dr Raufu Ladipo announced that eight Nigerian boxers have been rated by the Commonwealth Boxing Council which held their council meeting penultimate week in England.
Some of the rated boxers are African Boxing Union champion Oto Joseph, Olaide Fijabi, Waidi Usman and Larry Ekundayo, and others
Ladipo also disclosed that Joseph is lined up for a Commonwealth title eliminator which will come up soon so that he can fight for the title as soon as posible.
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