The Oyo State Boxing Association has called on corporate bodies and spirited individuals to assist the body financially towards actualizing the dream of bringing to fruition its proposed monthly boxing tournament conceptualized to revive the sport in the state and country as a whole.
Making the plea was the Chairman of the association, Baron Akintunde Opaleye, while addressing the press after the stakeholders meeting called to inaugurate the Main Organising Committee (MOC) for the boxing tourney which is under way.
Opaleye in his statements said if we are serious at returning our sports men and women to winning ways in global sporting scene, only active involvement of every stakeholders can make the dream a reality and charting a new path for the development of the game of boxing by creating a platform that will actively engage our boxers required involvement of all.
“We are of the opinion that only active engagement of boxers that can bring out the best in them and prepare them for national and international engagements which we know would also produce fresh bloods who can easily replace the ageing ones and that is why we are seeking everybody’ support.
“We have more than 200 boxing clubs here in Oyo State alone with average of 20 to 50 boxers training day-in and out without having a good platform to exhibit what they are learning from their coaches, only to end up at the hands of politicians who use them for illicit purposes,” Opaleye noted.
He added that the tourney has attracted supports and endorsement from
many boxing enthusiasts which included the respected Yoruba monarch, Oba
Lamidi Adeyemi, the Alaafin of Oyo who has thrown his weight
behind the monthly tourney.
