From wiki: Akinwande was born in London, England but went to live in his parents homeland of Nigeria as a 4-year-old and came back to England as a 21-year-old (1986). Akinwande said he started boxing in Nigeria.
Saturday - November 6, 1976 Accra Sports Stadium, Ghana 100,000+ Boxing Fans WBC Featherweight Championship Bout * David 'Poison' Kotey vs. #1 Danny 'Little Red' Lopez Now that is a 'successful boxing promotion.'
Cape Verde - There was a French based Junior Middle who was fairly successful at the Euro level. Can't remember his name though. Senegal - Of course Battling Siki. Other French based fighters are Mamadou Thiam, Souleymane M'Baye, Jean Paul Mendy, and the potentially best of all, Louis Gomis, whose career was cut short with detached retina. Gambia - Badou Jack Guinea - Mohammed Konde based out of Ghana. Many of his early wins are missing and he fought way past his prime. Nothing to shout about though. Sierra Leone - US based Israel Cole and UK's David Muhammed. Cole hit fringe contender status for a brief period. Liberia - US based Sammy Stewart who lost to Tapia for the title. He fought top guys all the time. Togo - Bossou Aziza who could have been a good contender if he didn't stay in Africa. John Mensah Kpalogo who fought Zarate for the title. And big punching Jaffa Ballogou who fought Frankie Liles for the belt and was an avoided contender for a decade. Benin - Arisitides Sagbo, African champ and national hero. His promoter never let him venture out of Benin but kept him as African champ. He died broke of course. Murderous punching Georges Bocco who had a crack at the WBC International belt. Kpadonou Nazaire, former African champ and revered in Benin. Currently, the best is Jus-tin Savi, fringe contender.
That is a totally Eurocentric, almost ignorant view of the continent's countries. If you live in Africa, they split it into five regions: Northern: Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania Eastern: Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Reunion, Mauritius, Madagascar Southern: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland, and South Africa Western: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde Central: Congo, Dem Congo, Central African Rep, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Sao Tome South Africa is very much tied in with Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho, and Namibia. Zimbabwe was apartheid only until the 80's When it comes to sports, the only main division talked about is Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa. But they're still all African. Because Africa does not mean 'black'. And besides, it stems from the old Roman name for Northern Africa 'Il Ifriqi' or something like that.
Eurocentric,,,,,,,, Aren't you being a little 'harsh',,,,, More African boxers,,,,, Baby Tandy...........................Benin Hogan 'Atomic Bomb' Jimoh.......Nigeria Taber Ben Hassan...................Tunisia Laurent Barie.........................Ivory Coast
nah you can drink just as long as you choose not to indulge and poison yourself. smoking is haraam but its a huge past time in the arabic world. yet earning a profit is also. haraam has different interpretations really. a glass of wine or beer during a meal is acceptable. the wine tastes good, is a local product and is a digestive. it's more due to abuse. it's rare but it's not nearly as frowned on by the majority as people think. it would be like having a scotch with your steak...it might turn heads for a fraction of a second but nothing they use the same designed boats as Sicilian ad spanish fisherman. Punic/Carthaginian/Phoenician design in architecture around before rome added it to the empire. algeria,morrocco is pretty pronounced. when i said roman culture i didnt man that there are legions bumbling around marrakech. north morroco for example has a lot of roman classical roman designs that are still kept up. the arabic expansion does not mean that north africa is arabic. it is just muslim. it's like saying part of spain should be considered arabic...it sort of is but it is definitely european. also post colonialism of france and britain has given new sense of national pride to break away from the west and the east cultural oppression. to an arabic speaking, islamic praising, western governing, european sensibility, while being pan african. **** im in the classic forum.sorry about that folksatschatschatsch back to the thread siaid ouali...............Morocco khalid rahilou..........Morocco jaffa ballogou..........Togo (used to post on here) naoufel ben rabah....Tunisia
Said Skouma and Gratien Tonna were both French based north africans as well. They may have just considered themselves French though.Not sure how long they lived in the country.
Marcel Cerdan...............French Algeria (Morocco) Nicknamed....................'The Casablanca Clouter' and 'The Moroccan Bomber' Suprisingly, in the movie 'Casablanca' (set in 1941), never mentioned the most popular person (athlete or celebrity) in the country at the time. The 25 year-old Boxer, Marcel Cerdan was both the French and European Boxing Union Welterweight Champion at the time, and was 'extremely popular' in 1941. Fighting at local Stadiums; * Philip Stadium, Casablanca * St. Eugene Stadium, Casablnaca
I would also name some outstanding talent in Floyd Robertson of Ghana, Lahouri Godhi, Hocine Khalifi and Ould Makloufi of Algeria, Willie Toweel, Andries Steyn, Norman Sekapane and Happy Boy Mgxasi of South Africa to this ever growing list.
Maybe the most overrated #1 WBC Bantamweight Challenger John Mensanh Kpalogo..............Togo Faced WBC Bantamweight Champion, Carlos Zarate on March 10, 1979 at The Forum in Los Angeles. A CBS-TV afternoon Television Sports broadcast. As per the WBC Boxing Advisors and Championship Committee, they assured the CBS Television Network Boxing-Chief, Mort Sharnik - that Kpalogo was more than qualified, and that he was the African Bantamweight Champion. He was a 'legitimate' #1 Challenger. CBS-TV boxing announcer Tim Ryan did state that; 'Kpalogo was a 'relative unknown', but had won a 15-Round Decision over Sulley Shittu in January 1978. He has shown good movement in his gym-workouts here in Los Angeles.' The Television audience was told, That John Kpalaogo was 13-year 'professional' with '47' bouts on his record, an experienced 31 year-old, who had '45' wins in his '47' bouts. Yet, he had been beaten '6x' by Sulley Shittu of Ghana, before facing Carlos Zarate. His regular job in Lome, Togo - a carpenter by trade. Rumor has it, that he wasn't even the 'best' 118 lb. Bantamweight in his home town of Lome, Togo. A non-stop/one-sided pasting by 'murderous punching' Carlos Zarate, resulted in a Knock-out loss at 2:45 of Round 3. Just before the Knock-down, a 'weary and battered' John Mensanh Kpalogo looked over to his corner, who 'waved' him to go down. [url] This content is protected [/url]
A fighter whom I was following back in the day and thought he might make a stir was John Sichula of Zambia, but I think age finally caught up to him despite some fine wins. And, although he would never be described as one of the best, gotta take my hat off to Joe Tettah of Ghana who fought absolutely everybody who was anybody and always gave a great account of himself. Scartissue
Sulley Shittu.............Nigeria Though born in Nigeria, he fought out of Milan, Italy and Acra, Ghana. One hell of a 'speedy' Bantamweight. Had an 'undocumented' record of {63-0-1} up to losing to John Mensanh Kpalongo in January 1978. Defeated Paul Ferreri in January 1977, for the British Commonwealth Bantamweight Championship.
