Opeyemi “Sense” Adeyemi was, on Sunday, voted best boxer at GOtv Boxing Night 18, which held at the Indoor Sports Hall of the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan. The winner is awarded the Mojisola Ogunsanya Memorial Trophy to which a cash prize of N1million is attached.
The 19-year old super bantamweight boxer, despite drawing his national challenge bout with Sadiq “Happy Boy” Adeleke, recorded the highest number of votes in the poll carried out by journalists at the event.
According to the show organisers, Flykite Productions, the announcement of his name as the winner of the prize was not made at the venue, as it is customary, following an advice against it by the security personnel on duty at the show.
“Policemen and officials of the private security firm at the event advised against announcing the best boxer immediately after the show because they considered it less than safe to do so. Opeyemi will be presented with his cheque at our Lagos office,” the statement said.
Last year at GOtv Boxing NextGen Search 4 in Abeokuta, Opeyemi emerged best boxer. This was after catching the eyes of boxing coaches at GOtv Boxing NextGen Search 3 in 2017 in Ibadan, where he was deemed a year too young to turn professional, despite excelling at during the sparring sessions for young boxers. He returned the following year and excelled again.
In the headline bout of the night, Oto “Joe Boy” Joseph of Nigeria defended his African Boxing Union lightweight title by seeing off his Ghanaian opponent, Success “Brave Warrior” Tetteh of Ghana within 46 seconds. Ridwan “Scorpion” Oyekola emerged the new national super featherweight champion with a first round dismissal of long-reigning champion, Taofeek “Taozon” Bisuga. In the light middleweight category, Akeem “Dodo” Sadiku stopped Republic of Benin’s Ekpresso Djamihou in the fourth round.
The lightweight division saw Taiwo “Esepo” Agbaje and Isaac “I Star” Chukwudi stopping their respective opponents-Michael “Holy Mike” Jacobs and Muftau “Oloke” Owolabi-in the first round. West African Boxing Union welterweight champion, Rilwan “Baby Face” Babatunde, made a successful return to the ring with a fourth-round dismissal of Ganiyu “Energy” Kolawole.
