Major and Latest Boxing news in Ghana
Agbeko in big loss
WBO bantamweight champion, Joseph Agbeko, is currently saddled with a huge debt after his promotion outfit staging his recent home coming world title bout in Accra, and his troubles have been aggravated by pressure from his creditors who have harangued him in the past weeks demanding their money.
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Agbeko, who gained a unanimous points decision over Colombian Luis Melendez, is saddled with a GH¢50,000 debt, which includes $20,000 due to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, which according to Graphic Sports sources, was lend to the organisers on the eve of the fight when the promotion was running into difficulties.
According to sources, the $20,000 was borrowed at the very last minute to enable the Fresh King Promotions to settle the $13,000 purse of Colombian Melendez and the remainder for the match officials.
This was at a crucial time when the bill was running into trouble, with Melendez and the foreign match officials threatening to pull out, if they were not paid as stipulated by the contract.
Indeed, the organisers had hoped that the expected GH¢45,000 package from the main sponsors, RLG, would cover some of the losses incurred. But the ICT company is yet to make good on its promise, leaving Agbeko at the mercy of his creditors.
One of such creditors is the National Sports Authority (NSA) whose acting Chief Executive, Alice Attipoe, is frustrated at what she described as the “evasive tactics” adopted by the organisers of the fight who promised to pay up GH¢10,000 for use of the Accra Sports Stadium.
She said the NSA usually charged GH¢15,000 for the use of the facility which was collected before the event.
However, in the case of Agbeko, the authority agreed to a request by the promoters to pay up after the fight.
Sources close to Fresh King Promotions which staged the fight, told Graphic Sports in confidence that delays by sponsors to pay had created the problems but were hopeful of settling all debts relating to the March 22 promotion in the shortest possible time as they chased sponsors to honour their side of agreements.
They said virtually every pesewa expended on the promotion was coughed up from the reserves of the now three-time world champion who, they claimed, “did not receive a purse for fighting for the title”.
The sources stressed that it was a well-known situation among boxing promoters that staging such a bill was a financial risk that could break the back of the average businessman unless they were supported by corporate sponsors to underwrite the huge cost of staging such international bouts.
The fight itself, another source revealed, yielded less than GH¢9,000 from the gates, and he claimed that “about 90 per cent of the patrons of the fight watched without paying”.
GoldenMike Promotions, the most vibrant boxing promotion outfit in Ghana until Asamoah Gyan’s Baby Jet Promotions entered the scene recently, once staged a bill and accrued a debt in excess of GH¢70,000.
Story: Andy Quao & Michael Quaye
