Roy Ankrah

Roy Ankrah
Data
Birth Name	John Theophilus Oti Ankrah
Fight name	The Black Flash
Weight class	Flyweight
nationality	Ghanaian
birthday	December 25, 1925
place of birth	Accra
Date of death	May 28, 1995
Place of death	Accra
Combat Statistics
Struggles	44
Victories	34
Knockout victories	14th
Defeats	7th
No value	3
Profile in the BoxRec database

Roy Ankrah (born December 25, 1925 in Accra as John Theophilus Oti Ankrah ; † May 28, 1995 there ), known by his fighting name The Black Flash ( German  "the black lightning" ) was a Ghanaian boxer who was known as the "pioneer of professional Boxing Sports ”on the Gold Coast applies.

life and career

According to other sources, Ankrah was born in Jamestown in 1923 (two years earlier than stated in other sources) and raised by his aunt after the untimely death of his mother. He is said to have been known as a street thug and won the regional school championship at the age of 12. At this time Ankrah was already working as a car mechanic in his uncle's workshop. He trained with increasing success and won his first professional match on points at the age of 17. After winning the national featherweight title for the first time in 1941, he joined the army and was sent to India in this capacity because of the Second World War , where Ankrah is said to have participated in numerous exhibition fights and championships. After his return, the Ghanaian boxed for the national featherweight title again, in the same weight class he then defeated the Nigerian stoker Kid Parry, with which Ankrah won the title of West African champion. He is said to have kept this undefeated until he moved to the British Isles.

According to consistent reports, Ankrah switched to the professional camp on the Gold Coast in 1941 , until 1949 he fought a total of 110 fights in a row there without defeat and during this time became national champion in five different weight classes - namely the flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, lightweight and welterweight. On the recommendation of Freddie Mills , Ankrah made his debut - as the first Ghanaian overseas - on February 8, 1950 in Paisley, Scotland against George Lamont, on May 30, 1950 he suffered his first defeat in a fight against the Irishman Jimmy Murray. By defeating Ronnie Clayton on April 30, 1951, Ankrah won the Commonwealth featherweight title and retained it until his loss to Billy Kelly on October 2, 1954. A few months later, "The Black Flash" ended his career in the British Isles, but in 1959 again played three professional fights in his Ghanaian homeland.

Ankrah, who was also called "Mr Perpetual Motion" ( German  "Mister constant movement" ) because of his high stroke frequency and good footwork , later supported the Ghanaian teams in preparation for the Commonwealth Games and the Olympic Games . He assisted the British trainer Jack Roy at the 1960 Olympic Games when Clement Quartey won the first Olympic medal for the former British crown colony. After these games, Ankrah was promoted to national coach and was under contract with the National Sports Council until 1994 . In addition, Ankrah was temporarily active as a judge for the WBC . The boxer fell ill in November 1994 and died six months later on the way from his home in Dansoman to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital . He left behind his wife and five children.

Web links

• Roy Ankrah in the BoxRec database
• Career Review. Based on: Nat Fleischer : The Ring Record Book and Boxing Encyclopedia. 1955 edition. P. 721.
• Today in sports history: Roy Ankrah dead. In: ghanaweb.com (May 28, 2020).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ankrah may have been born in 1923. This is supported by the fact that otherwise he would have been just 15 years old when he made his professional debut in 1941.
2. ↑ Cecilia J. Dumor (ed.): Nelson Thornes West African Readers. Junior Readers 3. Nelson Thornes, Cheltenham 2003, ISBN 0-7487-7034-8 , pp. 110-113.