LAGOS – Idowu Ogunsetan, a professional boxer, on Monday appealed to the authorities to support boxers in the country with the requisite equipment to enable them
Ogunsetan, who fights in the cruiser weight category, made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
He said that such support would enable boxers to go the extra mile when representing the country.
“What I think they can do to encourage the boxers is by helping them. Look at me now, I am a transport worker, after training I will go and work so I can sustain myself, tomorrow I am still coming back to training and I have family at home.
“Assuming I don’t have something doing, I will go jobless, that is why we have so many boxers. They come to training every day, some are okada riders, some are Keke Marwa riders.
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“But what about some that don’t have job.
“So, I believe that in Nigeria, boxing can move forward more than this.’’
He also appealed to the government to upgrade the available boxing gymnasiums in the country, to enable boxers to train in conducive boxing environment ahead of competitions.
“Look at our National Stadium gym, at least we need some equipment, now we go to outside (the) country we saw their gym, they have everything in their gym so that the boxers can train very well and keep fit.
“But not in our Nigeria, you can see us we look for three punching bags and we are so many.
“So we wait after this then this go, after this then this go; upon all we still survive.
“So, we believe if the government can help us more, we can still survive more than this.’’
(NAN)
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