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I can’t defend my ABU title until 2020, injured Joe Boy tells Nigerians

By Gowon Akpodonor
14 November 2019   |   4:15 am
African Boxing Union (ABU) lightweight champion, Oto ‘Joe Boy’ Joseph has ruled himself out of any boxing contest this year.

Oto ‘Joe Boy’ Joseph (second right) exchanges hot words with ‘Real One’ Oladosu (left) in Lagos earlier this year. Joe Boy says he won’t step into the boxing ring until March 2020

• ‘I will beat Oladosu like a baby once I am fit’
African Boxing Union (ABU) lightweight champion, Oto ‘Joe Boy’ Joseph has ruled himself out of any boxing contest this year.

Joe Boy was earlier scheduled to take on West African Boxing Union (WABU) lightweight champion, Rilwan ‘Real One’ Oladosu, in a bout tagged ‘Fight of The Decade’ at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos on October 12. But the showdown could not hold following an injury Joe Boy sustained while training in Lagos.

The ABU titleholder suffered a shoulder injury in the build up to the fight while training with his sparring partner.

Joy Boy and Real One are considered the best pugilists in the country, and the October 12 contest would have settled the issue of ‘who is the true champion’ between the two boxers. Oladosu is the challenger for the ABU title.

Organisers of the fight decided to move the bout to the last week of December 2019 with the hope that the champion will be fit.

However, Joe Boy declared in a chat with The Guardian yesterday that he would not be able to venture into any boxing contest throughout the rest of the year. “I can’t go into any boxing contest this year,” he said. “The injury I sustained was a muscle blast on my shoulder, and there is no way I can fight with it throughout this year.

“I have done a lot of medical check up on it (the shoulder) and the results are almost the same. I paid a lot of money doing the scan. The first scan cost me N50,000, the second one cost me N45,000 and I spent N77,000 on the MRS I just did. I have to be fully okay before I can enter the ring for any fight,” he stated.

There are fears in some quarters that Joe Boy might be stripped of the ABU title if he failed to show up for the ‘Fight of The Decade’ against Oladosu in the last week of December.

“I don’t think such thing will happen because I will be fully fit to deal with him (Oladosu) early next year. My fans know what I am capable of doing inside the ring. I will teach him a big lesson on that day. But as I said, my shoulder injury has to heal properly and thereafter, I will begin training for the fight. Maybe, we are looking at March 2020,” Joe Boy stated.

The challenger, Oladosu, has launched series of verbal attacks on Joe Boy, describing him (Joe Boy) as a coward and boxer with limited ability. He boasted that he would expose the ABU champion’s limitations in a brutal fashion. “I know him very well. He is my boy. I know what he can do and what he can’t. He relies on raw power. He has no boxing brain. But raw power can only work against low-grade boxers. I’m not in that category. The ABU title is for me. His limited ability has taken him as far as it can. It is the end of the road for him,” Oladosu had stated after training at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in preparation for the postponed October 12 bout.

The ‘Fight of The Decade’ between Joe Boy Joseph and Real One Oladosu was the headline bout for GOtv Boxing Night 20.

But the organisers have since fixed November 16 for a Mini Night GOtv Boxing for the boxers to exhibit their skills. The event holds this weekend at the Rowe Park, Yaba.

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