John Odhiambho was a cruiserweight from Kenya in the 1980s who retired with a record of 24-1-0-14. His only defeat came in a 15 round world title bout against Ossie Ocasio. Along the way Odhiambho beat Marvin Camel, Bunny Johnson, Eddie Gonzalez, Avenemar Peralta, and Tom Colins. Anyone know anything else about him ?
I heard his fight with Ocasio on the radio. Back then there was a law prohibiting local world title fights to be shown live on TV in Puerto Rico, in order to encourage going to the fights in person. I finally saw the fight one week later on TV on Telemundo. Odhiambo was a good fighter. Leading to the title fight there was tension on the island because no one knew what the undefeated challenger could do. Ocasio just outlasted him. I remember dad commenting, the day after the fight that it was not Ocasio's power that won Ossie the fight by knockout but Odhiambo's lack of condition towards the end. Good fighter but Ocasio is underrated IMO.
I have several of his fights. John Odhiambo was a good fighter, but short of being great. He had some tough opponents from the start. In his first fight he met the British Champion! His fight against Ocasio was in a not A/C hall, and Odhiambo lost more to the heat than to lack of conditioning. (I know that Odhiambo was from Kenya, but he had more or less lived in cold Denmark for five years). Ocasio was just the best man on the night. In this fight Odhiambo suffered some damage do one of his eyes that meant 18 months out of the ring. He had some more fights, but the fire was no longer there.
Johnny Odhiambho paassed away early this year without much coverage. RIP Johnny Odhiambho. John Odhiambo, who went missing about a month ago ( May 2026) , has now been found dead in Copenhagen. The 70-year old former world class boxer was in bad health and was suffering from dementia, had problems walking and was blind in one eye. But back in the day John Odhiambo was one of the best of the many excellent fighters that came from East Africa, mainly Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, to Europe in the late 1970’s, early 1980’s. They included Ayub Kalule, Mustapha Wasajja, Stephen Muchoki, Mike Irungu, John Mugabi, John Munduga, Mohammed Kawoya, Patrick Lumumba and many others. Some made it to the big time and earned good money but some fell a little short. John Odhiambo, who went missing about a month ago, has now been found dead in Copenhagen. The 70-year old former world class boxer was in bad health and was suffering from dementia, had problems walking and was blind in one eye. But back in the day John Odhiambo was one of the best of the many excellent fighters that came from East Africa, mainly Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, to Europe in the late 1970’s, early 1980’s. They included Ayub Kalule, Mustapha Wasajja, Stephen Muchoki, Mike Irungu, John Mugabi, John Munduga, Mohammed Kawoya, Patrick Lumumba and many others. Some made it to the big time and earned good money but some fell a little short.
