Henry Akinwande

Henry Akinwande
Data
Birth Name	Henry Akinwande
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	Nigerian - British
birthday	October 12, 1965
place of birth	London
style	Left delivery
size	2.01 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	55
Victories	50
Knockout victories	30th
Defeats	4th
draw	1

Henry Akinwande (born October 12, 1965 in London ) is a former Nigerian-British boxer and former WBO heavyweight champion.

amateur

As an amateur Akinwande was British heavyweight champion in 1988 and 1989, and in 1989 he won the final against Herbie Hide . In 1988 he took part for Great Britain at the Olympic Games in Seoul , but lost in the first fight against the later silver medalist Arnold Vanderlyde .

Professional career

In 1989 Akinwande turned professional. After 18 wins he boxed against Axel Schulz for the European championship in Berlin . In the first fight in 1992, the two were drawn, Akinwande clearly won the rematch in 1993.

After two title defenses, including against Mario Schießer , he moved to the USA and signed with Don King . There he beat Tony Tucker in 1995 and won the vacant WBO world title against Jeremy Williams in 1996 . He defended him against Alexander Solkin and the British Scott Welch .

Then he resigned the title and challenged 1997 WBC World Champion Lennox Lewis . In a memorable weak performance, he was disqualified in the fifth round for excessive braces and has not been taken seriously in the USA since then.

In 2001 he suffered his second knockout defeat in the tenth round against Oliver McCall . In 2003 he was able to defeat Timo Hoffmann . Since 2005 he has been under contract with Wilfried Sauerland's boxing stable . In November 2006 he was defeated by the Ukrainian Oleg Platov on points.

Akiwande played his last fight in July 2008, losing to later WBO European champion Ondrej Pala .

Web links

• Henry Akinwande in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Riddick Bowe	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) June 29, 1996 - February 17, 1997	Herbie Hide