‘I wish I had Gotv opportunity in my boxing days’

FORMER Olympian, Jerry Okorodudu, has lamented that an initiative like the GOtv Boxing Night was unavailable in his days as an active boxer. He believes the experience from the programme would have helped his career. 

  “If we had such opportunity like the one GOtv is currently offering our boxers, we would have done considerably better and probably, I could have become a world champion in my days,” he said.

  Okorodudu, one of the boxers that represented Nigeria at the Los Angeles ‘84 Olympic Games, spoke during a press conference in Lagos to announce the second edition of the GOtv Boxing Night, a six fight professional competition. It is slated for March 15 at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium in Lagos.

  Okorodudu told the 12 boxers billed to fight at the Boxing Night that they should take the competition seriously by training well and conducting themselves properly to encourage GOtv, headline sponsors of the competition, to continue their sponsorship of the event. 

  “I want all of you (boxers) to take the GOtv Boxing Night seriously because they are spending so much to bring back Nigerian boxing to its glory days. I expect you to keep encouraging them to keep on sponsoring the competition. If you do this, other sponsors will come and join GOtv and boxing will be back on its feet,” he said.

 Okorodudu, who is currently a national boxing coach, added that he regrets that a similar initiative did not exist in his active days. 

  “Nigeria is known for producing boxing talents, but in my time there was little or no encouragement to make us realise our potential,” Okorodudu added.