Nigerian Lady Boxer Raises $10, 000 For Her To Fight

A lady boxer raising a price money of about $10,000 just to fight  is not common, but that is just what a Nigerian lady athlete has done.

Helen ‘Iron Lady’ Joseph just got tired of watching her favourite sport from the sidelines and decided to stake personal pride and all just to return to active boxing.

And now, she is billed to face Martina Horgasx, a Hungarian in a Super-Bantamweight fight fixed for Thursday at the Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, United States.

The 30 year old lady has had to contend with a one-year competition drought occasioned by lack of sponsorship.

She had the last fight, defeated another Hungarian  Edina Kiss, by unanimous decision in a six-round Super-Bantamweight in New York, reports the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

When sponsorship could not come her way, thre US-based lady had to look inwards, personally raising the money as demanded by organisers so they could give her opponent.

With the Nigerian Consulate in New York, supporting, she sold the required amount in tickets.  

READ ALSO: 12th African Games: Flying Eagles Through To Finals

“I have finally got an opponent”, an excited Joseph told correspondents in New York on Tuesday, just three days to the fight.

“I am grateful to the Nigerian consulate, which played a major role in my journey to this day,”

Also nicknamed “The Princess of Africa”, Jospeh’s had before now, recorded 16 wins in 21-fight record of a 15-year career.

This includes 10 knockouts; two draws, and three defeats she has described as“unjust” defeats.

The Eagle reports that Nigerian Olympic champion, Chioma Ajunwa, has once blamed the decline in Nigeria’s dominance in athletics to the lack of programs to identify and nurture young talents.

“The problem is huge,” Ajunwa, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, told journalists, adding, “Here in Nigeria, we have not imbibed the culture of getting them young because we know that the young shall grow. When we know the importance of going to the grassroots, then we’ll be able to get a lot of athletes to represent this country.

“It’s only Lagos State that is trying, to have competitions for children, youth, everybody, but other states are still sleeping.”

Ajunwa, a gold medal winner in Long Jump at the Atlanta 96 Olympics, said athletes who eventually switch to other countries to compete for them should not be blamed.

“The truth of the matter is this; the condition in this country is so inimical to everybody. To the extent that everybody wants to see how he or she can make it in life. And it’s difficult for me or somebody else to go and tell these athletes ‘Don’t go there.’

“When you know that when they get there, that is where they can get money to feed their families. And, again, when they are here it looks as if nothing is happening. The moment they leave this country, six months, they become world champions.

“So how then could you tell such people ‘Don’t go’?” It’s difficult. And we don’t care because we believe that we have them many. So it’s a very dicey situation.”

The Olympian said she would not dissuade any athlete from switching nationalities and participating for other countries.

“During my own time, the country (Portugal) was calling me, I refused, and another girl switched over,” she said.

“So that is the thing, if you don’t want it, I want it. Everybody wants to make it in life and Nigeria is not helping them, so they can go elsewhere. And when they start doing well, we now become envious of them”, she had said.