I've heard he started late, but does any1 know actually what age he started! A ESB article said 19, can any1 confrim this?
I don't know what exact age he started at. Adeyinka Makinde (who wrote a biography of him) says he started as an amateur in his late teens. He also said the line between amateur and pro fights was sometimes blurred at that time in Nigeria, so it's possible some of his amateur fights could really be considered pro fights; or that some of his listed pro fights were really amateur ones. In short, his early record is somewhat sketchy, but it seems he did start somewhere around 19 or perhaps shortly before. I've seen his amateur career described as being "brief," although I've also read he won a few local amateur titles in that time.
