In Lagos, just before Coronavirus took over the world, people were getting excited about local boxing.
A video of an eight-year-old girl boxing went viral in early November. The little girl in the video, Shekinah, showed incredible speed. A clear raw talent whether you understand the game or not.
Several other videos kept going viral. So I began to wonder what was in the Nigerian water? Was it Lagos specifically that was factory building these potential future boxing champions?
I began to research. I asked people on Twitter, Instagram – even Facebook – tragic, I know. My search query was basic.
“Nigerian Boxing”. My searches kept leading me to a man named Saleh Fawaz.
Fawaz, runs a boxing promotions and management firm in Lagos. It didn’t take long to contact him and set up a Whatsapp interview (isn’t technology great?) in which his convincing tone and charm began to make me believe there really were exciting things taking place in Nigeria.
He was born and brought up in Lagos to a Lebanese father and Filipino mother. He naturally exudes so much passion for his heritage. His fluent pidgin expressions and mannerisms on the phone make it easy to see how proud he is to be Nigerian.
Saleh had gotten into boxing promotions because he “felt that the government was not doing enough”.
He tells me how amateur boxers were not receiving payment for the fights they were taking part in. Absolute motivation killer for everybody involved.
This of course, is problematic for several reasons. If boxers do not receive payment then a lot of them may be unable to keep up with the sport itself due to costs of travel, equipment and ultimately time invested. This issue instantly limited how boxers could progress if they were not as financially comfortable.
He realised that the local Lagosian boxers were “not living a good life”. They deserved so much more than what was being offered to them.
In the UK and other western countries, we take for granted the opportunities given to us. We have so many gyms and centres that allow all ages to take part in kickboxing, karate, judo, boxing and so much more. I’m sure we all know one person who has done something along these lines.
In Lagos, opportunity and luck are factors that heavily influence local boxing career prospects. There were a few initiatives to help before, which Saleh believes should definitely be acknowledged, but he realised that many “talented” boxers would eventually have to stop training due to lack of resources and organisation.There needed to be more opportunities.
So he began to manage the boxers himself. Starting with “one or two” while getting his bearings on how everything worked Saleh built up his boxing promotions brand – SalehGlovesPromotions.
The plan was simple, gather boxers and promoters from local gyms. Put them in a suitable setting to fight, and ask people to pay to watch the best fighters in their local area.
Upon seeing the success of their efforts, he decided on promoting Nigerian boxing in general. Clearly, it’s working as he caught my attention all the way from London.
He mentions how he hopes to “bring back the glory days”. A reference to the legendary Dick Tiger who is often said to have kept boxing alive in the 1950s. He was born in Nigeria, later migrating to the UK and finally pursuing and solidifying his career in America.
Saleh decided that he would do more. He started a small movement called ‘They Deserve To Dream’ going “to almost every corner of Lagos”. He travelled from Bariga to Somolu and to Yaba – he went almost everywhere you can try and name in Lagos in the hopes of finding boxing talent.
He began to invest in their “training [and] school support” and even housing.
Whilst promoting, Saleh realised that the most talented boxers were travelling to other West African countries – such as Ghana. In order to get viable fights. This is because “places like Ghana… have been doing boxing for a long time, so they have a show, … [once or twice] every month”.
He started this initiative to try and “keep the game active in Lagos”. Boxers don’t have to wait for that “once or twice a year” opportunity to fight in a big show or have to think about travel expenses as the event is mobile.
The facilities used to train are very humble. They use “boxing gyms” that can be a bit worse for wear as due to being old.
“I think Nigeria in the next couple of years will be one of the top destinations for boxing,” he tells me confidently. I believe him somewhat because of the conviction he has in his speech.
I ask him briefly about how people respond to Anthony Joshua’s success as he is very openly proud of his Nigerian heritage.
“They look up to him a lot, they see that he can do it, so why not? They can do it as well,”.
He also mentions UFC fighter, Kamaru Usman, who is currently a world champion and also a popular inspiration among Lagosians.
I joke with him that it seems to be a very good time to be Nigerian in the world. They are performing well in terms of athleticism. The list is endless. It’s hard to ignore the immense musical and cultural contributions as well. They deserve to be acknowledged. Nigerians everywhere are making Nigerians proud.
So I asked Saleh for the secret. What is the secret?
“It’s about working together, you know a lot of people used to ask me, like how come boxing is moving right now? And it’s not just me who did this. In the past year me and a lot of other promoters and managers we sat down together and decided that we can’t continue to be greedy”
Fawaz believes that greed held back the sport’s development for a while. After sitting down with other managers they all agreed to work together from then on.
The main initiatives are:
Amateur Street boxing
The team will choose “different areas in Lagos and work hand in hand with the local government”. Other promoters and boxers are invited so that any boxers who are not signed still have an opportunity to be signed by someone else. He says that ultimately “careers are being saved”.
Professional boxing (Lasgidi Fight Night)
“Lasgidi” is local slang for Lagos. The fight night occurs almost every month. They are the first boxing promotions firm in Lagos to host shows so regularly. The coronavirus epidemic has halted events.
Saleh didn’t stop there. He began to campaign for female boxers to receive equal pay to their male counterparts. Now, at the events they run in Lagos women have the same “fight price”.
He realised this was a cause he cared about after watching the women fighting and realising that a lot of them were “better than the men”. In terms of quickness and agility, they were definitely outperforming the guys.
“In fact, if you watch female boxers in Nigeria train… they’re much better. To the point that sometimes when we have a junior male boxer… probably a flyweight [the female boxers] will spar with them,”.
It’s a normal sight to see, he tells me. No one is surprised that the women can match the men.
His advice to up and coming boxers?
“Get as many amateur fights as you can,”.
His reasoning is that amateur boxing is actually harder than professional boxing. In amateur boxing, you have less time to think about your moves.
As well as this he advises making sure that you are registered and fighting legally – this can be useful later on in your career as you will have a “clean record… and when the time comes to turn pro you have a good resume to show,”. The legalities are so important.
In Lagos, people are getting excited and very soon the world will be excited for them too.
MAZVITA 