Dr Ezekiel Adamu is hoping to put boxing in Nigeria firmly on the map and the heavyweight division, with fighters like Moses Itauma and Daniel Dubois of African descent, has been recognized as the most obvious route in.
Dr Adamu is the man behind Balmoral Group Promotions and the Chaos in the Ring series and he is determined to make Africa a boxing powerhouse.
Dr Adamu, who is a doctor in business administration and corporate governance, hosts his next event on July 31, weaving boxing contests in with influencer fights.
“For me, I said the long-term goal is to build a proper infrastructure behind what we’re doing,” Dr Adamu told BoxingScene.
“Africa has never really lacked talent. What we’ve consistently lacked over the years is the institution and the infrastructure behind boxing, and that’s what we’re building here, from the streaming to better integration, getting the sponsors involved, talent development. As you know, Africa is actually one of the youngest populations in the world at the moment.
“We’ve got a population of about 1.4 billion people, and 75 per cent are between the ages of 15 to 30. So, it’s a very youthful demographic, and it’s a mobile-first kind of demographic as well too, and then you have the likes of DAZN. We distribute our content globally as well, so it’s exciting times in what we’re building.”
While he is keen to bring big fights to Africa, he is also ambitious when it comes to showcasing African talent.
Recently, he has met with Moses Itauma and Daniel Dubois on a trip to England.
“When you check the heavyweight category, like 60 to 70 per cent of them have a bit of African blood in them, but they don’t represent Africa,” he explained. “So, what Chaos in the Ring is doing is basically bringing and building the next generation of champions in Africa, representing Africa.”
Dr Adamu has seen the impact that Saudi Arabia has had on the boxing landscape and said he admires what they have done.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Saudi has brought boxing to the level they want to bring it. But we Africans want to do ours in a completely different way. What we have with Saudi as well, too, is you have the government backing us big time. What we want to do in Africa and Nigeria is to make it sustainable where we have the crowd, we have 1.4 billion people. So, if you get those people interested and even if you charge two pounds for people to watch this fight, it’s huge numbers.
“So, it’s a game of numbers for us here and also what we want to do here differently, what Saudi has done is that Africa’s got major talents and then for us it’s to bring in the talent as well to be on the event. We want to be the local talent as well.”
Dr Adamu is not sure how long it will take to become a significant player. It could be soon, or he might have to stay the course, like the established promotional powerhouses.
He believes he will become a force.
“Certainly. To be honest with you, I think we started boxing about 18 months ago and then where we are at the moment, I don’t think any African promoter has gotten a promotion to get to this level before. I think the biggest one we’ve done before was Zaire and that was Don King coming here to promote fight here in Africa [in 1974].
“So we are building and if I have a 10-year plan, I’m trying to achieve that in six months and seeing how it goes. So I’m an overachiever, I’ll keep pushing. The time we’ll get there, I don’t know. It could be the next one, it could be by the end of this year, it could be next year, who knows. But here, it’s never about perfection for us, it’s about momentum. I don’t even think we get to a place where we say, ‘Wes, we’re there yet.’
“No, we never get there, we just keep pushing. If Queensberry has been doing this for 45, 50 years… Matchroom has been here for about 45 years…
“And we are just about 18 months in the game. Shows you the opportunity we have here in Africa. We’ve got a few stadiums here. We’ve done a few stadium fights as well, too. We are looking to do a big stadium fight this December as well, so we are building.”
