Team Nigeria alleges robbery in boxing bout

Nigerian athletes and officials at the boxing event of the ongoing African Games in Ghana were, yesterday, forced to protest the reversal of Yakubu Ibrahim’s victory over Morocco’s Barbari Hamza.

Ibrahim won the light middleweight fight in all three judges’ cards by 2-1 (5-0, 2-3 and 3-2), as shown on the scoreboard. But the hall was in disarray when the referee reversed the result in Morocco’s favour.

According to the judges’ cards, Ibrahim won the first round 5-0, lost the second 2-3 and won the third round 3-2. Nigerian officials and the country’s supporters at the arena in Accra were already celebrating the win when the refereeallegedly changed the result.

Perplexed by the turn of events, Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF) Secretary General, Dapo Akinyele, protested the change, but the match commissioner explained that the result was reversed after a review of the bout.

The match commissioner advised Nigeria to request the intervention of the African Boxing Confederation (AFBC) if it is not satisfied by the explanation.

Towards that end, Akinyele promptly petitioned the AFBC to look into the matter and reverse the decision before the next light middleweight bout.

Speaking to the media on the issue, Akinyele asked: “Why would a match commissioner change the result of a fight, which judges rightly called when there was no reason for the change?This is one of the things wrong with sports in Africa as some countries want to win by all means. This is an injustice that must not be allowed to succeed.

“As I am talking to you, we haven’t been given a reason for the reversal of Ibrahim’s victory. Ibrahim won the bout as shown on the scoreboard. He won round one 5-0, lost 2-3 in round two and then won the third round 3-2.

“When I met the match commissioner, he said it was a bout review. The question is why would there be a review in a result declared by Judges when there was no reason to do that?

“The match commissioner said we should request AFBC to intervene. This has to be the most embarrassing and shocking decision ever made in a boxing tournament. This is nothing but injustice to a boxer, who trained hard to compete and win.”