Precious Josiah
Fresh facts have emerged how Olanrewaju Oluwasegun, a Nigerian boxer, died in Accra, Ghana on Saturday during a bout.
It was gathered that his initial bout was scheduled for Friday, but was cancelled due to overweight.
According to the Nigeria Boxing Board of Control, the boxer was initially not granted permission to fight, due reasons of mismatch, but was desperate for a fight, prompting an alternative arrangement.
Success as he was popularly known, a former National and West African light-heavyweight champion, lost his consciousness in a fight against Jon Mbanugu at the fight night 15 of the Ghana boxing arena, Accra on Saturday.
News Bureau learnt that success was leading on points before the unfortunate incident occured.
Success was up against Mbanugu popularly known as “Jon power ” in the eight round who also holds a record of 12 wins(knockout), one loss and one draw.
It took fans and ring officials at the Bukom arena some seconds to notice there was something wrong with “success” collapse.
Olarewaju had landed few weak punches which Mbanugu returned with a jab to the Nigerian face.
The Nigerian staggered backwards and collapsed against the ropes.
Efforts were made to resuscitate him ,he couldn’t regain consciousness .
Olarewaju’s team could be seen in the video clip shared online rushing to his aid, taking out his gum shield attempting to resuscitate him as he appeared to have lost breath.
He was quickly transported to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital by the emergency team, where he was later confirmed dead.
According to the Secretary General of the Nigerian Boxing Board of Control, Remi Aboderin, the Nigerian was supposed to fight on Friday but the bout was cancelled.
Aboderin stated that the late 40 years boxer decided to fight the next day due to drained pocket and debt owed back home .
“Segun got our approval to fight in Ghana, a fight that was proposed to take place on a Friday. Unfortunately, they did weigh-in on Thursday and he was found to be overweight and they told him the person he was to fight was not his weight,” he said.
“They said to do this, they would increase his purse with another $500, which he said was too small, and due to that, there was no agreement.”
Olarewaju and his team secured another boxer to face on Saturday ,he was really pressed with debt concerns and wanted to pay so the fight was important to the Nigerian boxer.
Unfortunately he could not make it out of the ring.