Abdulai Amidu chases Malik Jabir

Abdul Malik Jabir shot up in fame when he convincingly won the ABU featherweight crown at the Accra Stadium last Friday morning.

But hardly had he savoured the accompanying honour than he was awakened by the price that goes with such feats.

Barely 45 minutes after accomplishing his journey to the height of African boxing in the featherweight class, Malik Jabir was given a challenge for a bigger honour.

Super featherweight Abdulai Amidu, who also destroyed Congo D.R.'s Mbela King in only the first of their eight-round international contest on the same bill, obliged the new ABU featherweight champion for a showdown in a special 'who is who' contest.

Then a bantamweight, Malik had made similar gestures at national and West Africa super featherweight champion, Raymond Narh, although differences in their weight classes rendered his demand unreasonable.

When taunts from the lighter boxer reached unbearable limits, Narh accepted the challenge but was only prevented by his manager's threat of a possible legal action against the fight promoters.

Three months on, Malik Jabir has moved up in weight, just a step behind the super featherweight division.

That makes the challenge from Abdulai Amidu more reasonable, and to show his bravery and readiness to reach the super featherweight class sooner than imagined, Malik mounted the ring and announced his acceptance of the challenge.

This is his game and now he stands right in the middle of it. But that was not the end of the challenges. Super middleweight Braimah Kamoko, a.k.a Bukom Banku, made similar overtures to ABU middleweight titlist, James Toney, on the same night.

After subduing Nigerian opponent, Mojeed Okedara, via a seventh round TKO, Toney had to contend with the taunts of Kamoko, who believes Toney is yet to face a real puncher in the game.

And before the fans could find out the better boxer between super lightweights Stephen Okai and Badu Akuetteh in their national championship fight, Lartekwei Hammond was also standing at the door, awaiting the victor to do it with him.

Armed with that knowledge, Okai had to abandon any merry-making, and rather brood over the challenge from his next prospective opponent after dismissing Akuetteh.

The action-packed thriller of a bill put together by Hush Hush Promotions and Management Syndicate in association with Metro Sports and GTV attracted eight quality fights, six of which travelled full distance.

In fact, it was the distance covered by the various fights that made the programme travel all the way to the dawn of Friday.

But the displeasure of fans against the long journey the event took was erased quickly when 'Congo Soldier' Ben Ankrah and Kpakpo Allotey, the 'Lighting Flash,' entered for the final bout in a contest for the national lightweight crown.

Kpakpo, though naturally a super featherweight, remained the favourite of fight analysts. But that status began to wane from the very first round when Ankrah connected perfectly with consistent stinging jabs.

By the seventh round, Kpakpo might have realised that only a knockout could work things in his favour, which prompted him into a ferocious battle with Ankrah in the early seconds of that round.

But the adventure proved quite costly as Kpakpo came out of the exchanges with a cut over his right eye. From then on, the tide changed with Ankrah doing the attack while Kpakpo remained on the defensive.

With all hopes of recovery lost, Kpakpo threw caution to the wind and attacked in the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds which only enhanced his image, as a tough competitor.

But that was too little too late. The verdict was already against him. Ankrah deservingly clinched the title with a majority verdict.

Osumanu Akaba also won a unanimous decision over Nigeria's Theodore Lokosso in a featherweight contest while Kuma Doe achieved victory in his maiden bout when he outpointed compatriot Samuel Turkson in a super featherweight fray.

Alfred Tetteh and Ben Odamtten battled to a draw in their featherweight contest.