As the international super featherweight bout draws near, Senator Teslim Folarin of Oyo Central Senatorial District is drumming support for an Ibadan-born professional boxer, Ridwan Oyekola SCORPION who is preparing to trade punches with a spaniard Jose Ramos Savin for a vacant belt in the boxing category of World Boxing Federation (WBF).
Oloye Folarin, who hosted Team Scorpion at his Oluyole residence in Ibadan, noted that so many talented youngsters in Nigeria who could have become boxing champions in their various categories could not realise their dreams as a result of dearth of competitions and lack of sponsorship.
In his words, āour young and talented boxers are wasting because of lack of support.Ā I am a sport lover, therefore I will give support to Ridwan Scorpion. It is high time our governments, corporate organizations and philanthropists sponsored boxing just like football. Corporate organisations in Nigeria must wake up to their responsibilities. Telecom giants like MTN and Glo sponsor boxing in Ghana; why not extend same gesture to Nigeria. We must revive boxing in Nigeria by building home-grown world champions and superstars, therefore governments should partner with private investors to bring out the best from Nigerian youthsā.
āAnthony Joshua, Usman Kamaru and Isreal Adesanya who were frustrated by Nigerian system are now being celebrated by Nigerians and Nigerian government, while our talented boxers here are left in abject poverty and their dreams of becoming world champions stalledā.
āWe should encourage Ridwan Scorpion so that he would not end up like Taiwo Agbaje, who was the number one featherweight boxer in Nigeria but turned to a bus conductor in Lagos State due to lack of supportā.
āWhile I call on all sport lovers in Nigeria to grace the international bout taking place at Ilaji Stadium in Oyo State on December 27th 2020, I urge governments and all stakeholders to support Ridwan to be a world champion on the D-dayā he submitted.
