Akeem Anifowoshe

Akeem Anifowoshe (born September 11, 1968 in Nigeria ; † December 1, 1994 there ) was a Nigerian professional boxer.

biography

Akeem grew up with eight siblings as the son of a truck driver and a bar owner in Lagos . He started boxing at the age of 14 and soon won regional and national championships. As early as 1984 he came to the Nigerian Olympic team and should take part in the Summer Games in Los Angeles , but was not allowed there due to his age. Instead of returning to Nigeria, however, he stayed in the United States and trained under Doc Broadus, who had met Akeem during an Olympic training camp. Akeem then lived in Las Vegas and attended Rancho High School there .

In 1986 he started bantamweight at the 4th World Championships in Reno , Nevada. After a bye in the preliminary round, he moved into the last sixteen, where he defeated the Canadian Chuck Evans 4-1. In the quarter-finals, however, he lost 5-0 to the later bronze medalist Yuri Alexandrow from the Soviet Union. Disappointed about the departure, he then switched to the professional camp.

In May 1988 he married his girlfriend Sharon and had two sons, Akeem junior and Kazeem. In order to finance a life of his own with his family, he stood in the ring almost every two months and boxed for combat fairs from initially $ 350 to finally $ 15,000.

By early 1990 he had won each of his 17 fights, 12 of which by knockout. The defeated opponents included a number of build-up opponents as well as boxers with positive match statistics such as Rommy Gary (10-1) and Santiago Caballero (34-5). On April 12, 1990 he won by knockout in the seventh round against Cesar Armando Martinez (10-1) and was then declared by the North American Boxing Federation to the new North American super flyweight champion. He then defended the title by knockout against Guillermo Flores, Ricardo Mijares, José Montiel (33-5) and Lucilo Nolasco, and he beat Claudemir Dias Carvalho (19-1) early in round eight in a non-title fight.

On June 15, 1991 he finally got the chance for the IBF world title in super flyweight against Robert Quiroga (17-0) from the USA; he boxed it in San Antonio , the hometown of his opponent. Akeem fought a technically clean, powerful fight with Quiroga over the full twelve rounds and scored particularly in the last two rounds, but in the end Quiroga was declared the unanimous point winner. Shortly after the outcome of the fight, Akeem collapsed in the ring and was admitted to the San Antonio Baptist Medical Center , where a blood clot had to be removed from his brain. Quiroga was so badly marked after the fight that he did not give a subsequent interview, but was immediately taken to the emergency room of the same hospital, where serious cuts on his chin, eyebrows and eyelids had to be sewn. The Ring Magazine chose the fight to the "Fight of the Year 1991".

Due to the injuries suffered by the two boxers, Texas boxing officials suggested the introduction of 8-ounce boxing gloves instead of the 6-ounce gloves previously used in IBF lower-weight championships. Quiroga, for example, had stated that he would never box with 6-ounce gloves again. The boxing commissions of the states of Texas, Nevada, and Iowa then looked into banning these gloves for future fights while the IBF commissioned a medical examination. Eventually the 6 ounce gloves were retired.

Akeem, who was number 5 in the IBF world rankings until his injury and was only 22 years old, had to retire from boxing for health reasons. The boxing association permanently revoked his professional license. He returned to his native Nigeria and continued to practice boxing, although the state of Nigeria refused to grant him a professional license. Akeem died on December 1, 1994 at the age of 26 after collapsing in the shower room following a workout.

Web links

• 4th World Championships 1986 in Reno, amateur-boxing.strefa
• Brutally Beaten, a Boxer Still Dreams of Title, New York Times
• Profile at BoxRec