West African kickboxing tourney at Prisons Canteen

Eighteen kickboxers will participate in the first West African kickboxing show at the Prisons Canteen in Accra tomorrow.

The event, being organised by Jhama Kickboxing Gym in collaboration with the Greater Accra Kickboxing Association and sponsored by IBS Consulting Company Limited, will involve eight kickboxers each in the Under 65kg and the Over 65kg categories.

The winners in both categories will each receive $500.

Harry Maxwell and Tettey Boye, both heavyweights, will engage in an exhibition match.

At a press conference last Tuesday to brief the media on the kickboxing show dubbed "Dead or Alive,” Koichi Uchida said the winners of the two competitions will also be decorated with title belts and offered the opportunity of visiting Japan to train and compete.

He said kickboxing had become the number one sport in Japan and efforts were being made to globally spread the sport whose popularity was fast growing in the Netherlands, China, France, Switzerland, Germany, Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

“With the rich history of boxing in Ghana, we believe we can achieve this sort of success in Ghana as well”, he said, noting that plans were far advanced to conduct exchange programmes for Ghanaian and Japanese kickboxers as well as organise a seminar that would educate media personnel on the sport.

Some of the kickboxers on Saturday's bill that will be free of charge for the public, are Ebenezer Tackie, Francis Dodoo, Reginald Dodoo, Emmanuel Appiah, James Bekoe, Patrick Arthur, Samuel Annan and Stephen Bruce for the 65kg category.

The over 65kg will see crack competitors like Isaac Aikins, Justice Lartey, Henry Abbey, Edward Ahwassoh, Boye Issah, Daniel Abbey, Eddie Quansah and Okoe Arafat fight for honours.

According to Mohammed Amin Lamptey, the media officer of the organisers, the tournament will be on a “knockout or loser goes out format”. Each bout will be a three-minute and two-rounder affair.

By Sammy Heywood Okine