Oyewalé "Lucky Boy" Omotoso

If you had been wondering about the dynamite-punching Nigerian welterweight fringe contender and why you've not heard of him in a while, here's the answer. It turns out he is semi-retired and working full-time coaching novices & youths now, splitting his time between Wild Card West (the branch in Santa Monica) and his native Lagos. He still keeps himself in shape and spars in case Al Haymon comes through with an opportunity for him, but at 33 and with him always having been high risk & low reward it seems less and less plausible that his phone will ring as more time passes - and he seems pretty content and happy with his new role in the sport. It's been ten months already since he beat Freddy Hernández (who's being fed to Jason Quigley next Thursday), which itself was Omotoso's first ring appearance since July of 2016. As of tomorrow, Lucky Boy will have fought, altogether, just twice in exactly three years (beating Gilberto Sánchez León on 10/13/15 on the Washington vs. Mansour undercard).

I'd like to see him active since he could still produce some explosive battles with a lot of the young bucks jockeying for position at 147 and 154 - but at the same time, if he's enjoying being a mentor and making a decent enough living between that and the odd sparring partner assignment - then good for him. Beats just idly hovering by the phone waiting for Haymon to pluck him off the shelf and feed him scraps.

 

Nobody cares about old Wale?

Sheesh, I guess today's treasure really is tomorrow's trash, then. He was quite an action hero for a time, and I still think of more than a handful of top 15 ranked guys at welter or super welter that he could (as of his most recent form) be a nightmare for.