How children of the poor can save boxing in Nigeria – Jacobs

My names are Folorunsho Abiodun Jacobs. I was born in 1941. After my secondary education, I went into technical training at technical college Sapele in the present Delta State. There, I continued with boxing having been a boxer before. I developed the sport there and became the head of amateur boxing. Occasionally, we had championships […]

My names are Folorunsho Abiodun Jacobs. I was born in 1941. After my secondary education, I went into technical training at technical college Sapele in the present Delta State. There, I continued with boxing having been a boxer before. I developed the sport there and became the head of amateur boxing. Occasionally, we had championships at Sapele. Local clubs then used to challenge the Government technical college because they knew that we had good boxers. I graduated there and was awarded a scholarship to study abroad. When I got to Germany where I studied automobile engineering, I continued with boxing even though I had lost my right thumb in a workshop accident back home. Since I was slowed down by the accident, I shifted my attention to officiating. I took tutorials in officiating and when I returned to Nigeria after four years in Germany, I was already a household name along with my late colleague Owa Johnson. After his death, I was the head of boxing refereeing in the Nigeria Boxing Board of Control, NBBC. I was also privileged to be in Tunisia and Paris for additional training. I am presently a member of the World Boxing Council and I am often called upon when there is a bout in Europe, Las Vegas in America and anywhere in the world. I have always been there. I have officiated in so many bouts on the continent and in Nigeria anytime there is any African Union boxing fight or World Boxing Council fight, I am always involved. The two fights that Bash Ali had in Nigeria, I was the man between him and the white opponents. At the moment, I have been appointed Ring official by the WBC in Africa. Due to my age, I am approaching 70, I no longer climb the ring at the WBC level but I am licensed to judge as long as I live.

So you are no longer an active referee?

I am an active referee in Nigeria but I cannot officiate at the world level. At the international level, they believe that at my age, I may have a wobbling leg. You know I am getting close to seventy and I do not disagree with them. So presently, I am head of ring officials in Nigeria and Africa.

What motivated you to take to boxing?

Generally speaking, if you move with those who are in a particular line, you are bound to join them. In Ibadan where I did my primary and secondary education, I lived in an area where we knew of a boxer called Lawson Moon, the Togolese fighter. He would gather the youths on Sunday and cordon a place with a mat and get a ring and we would be challenging one athother. Most of us then took to the game because we believed it was the only source of self defence one could develop by himself. That was how it all started. When I got to Sapele Government Technical College I became a champion of the sport. Whenever leaders of other sports announced trainings and other activities, I was not found wanting. I did my best to project the game of boxing in the school.

Did you get any support from your parents when you took to boxing?

I never allowed my mother whom I was staying with to know that I was into boxing. At times when I have bruises in my mouth, I will just tell her that something just scratched me somewhere. I never told her the truth. Whenever we had a tournament, I will leave home and hide myself in a corner to prepare. I did a lot of exercise without eating. In the evenings, we went in for scaling and you must scale appropriately or else you will be given a high opponent who would beat you up. So you make sure that you reduce your weight. But it was real fun because after the fights, when I returned home, I would be called beautiful names like knock out specialist and many others. I would also be bragging and no young girl dared turned down my advances. But I must tell you that in our days, parents were not willing to allow their children to engage in sports because it was not profitable.

Boxing in Nigeria, in the past and now, is there any basis for comparison?

Boxing in our days, football those days, and any other sport then was done based on enthusiasm and love for it. It was not about money. And you will be ready to die in it. But now, the story is not the same. It is only now that we are beginning to get amateur boxers who are showing signs of commitment. They are being given the opportunity to represent the country here and there. All the same, our commitment in those days cannot be compared with what we have now. All that concerned us was to be champion and nothing more.

But is boxing in Nigeria getting the expected attention from government and other promoters of the sport?

I can say government is encouraging amateur but not professional boxing. Nigerian professional boxers do not have good managers. They are supposed to have managers the way it is done in football. As it is, it is a “man know man affair”. Little attention is being paid to Nigerian boxers.

Does it mean there is dearth of professional boxers in Nigeria?

We have quality professional boxers in Nigeria but where are the bouts for them?  There are no championships. They are rusting away because there are no promoters. What the professionals need are promoters who can get up and say come and box for this amount of money. In our days, there were a lot of boxing clubs and we had a lot of competitions. Today’s boxers keep training without any championships.

 You started at the grassroots but the story is no longer the same. How can those entrusted with the future of the sport in the country get it back on track right from the grassroots?

It is hard to see sports develop at the grassroots unless you are talking about the children of the poor. It is only the children of the very poor that can take to boxing as a career. Nowadays, children are over pampered and so they lack the toughness to go out and fight. Over pampered children can never show interest in this pugilistic stuff neither will they ever be ready to be part of the combat sports that demand toughness and physical fitness. The manner in which people of this present generation are pampering their children, there can never be good boxers in Nigeria.

What is the future of boxing in Nigeria under the present leadership of the boxing federation?

The President of boxing is someone I know. He has been following the sport for a long time. The president usually watched professional boxing any time the good ones were fighting. Any time Joe Lasis was to fight everybody wanted to be there. Taylor is talking tough and I wish him the very best.