Major and Latest Boxing news in Ghana
The Gym: Home of boxing talents
The Gym across the High Street in Accra serves as a habitat to most young athletes who want to take up boxing as a means of getting out of poverty.
Founded by renowned trainer Adama Addy in 2015, the gym currently houses over 30 fighters which comprise amateur and professional boxers.
To most youth around the Jamestown area, The Gym serves as a home to many aspiring young boxers looking to walk in the shoes of legendaryAzumah Nelson and Ike ‘Bazooka’ Quartey, among others.
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As part of the Graphic Sports’ ‘State of boxing gyms in Ghana’ series, the paper visited the gym to know the challenges it faced despite the numerous talents it produced for the country.
There were over 10 boxers training as trainers by seriously taking them through various technical aspects of the sport when the paper got there. Notable among the boxers in The Gym are undefeated super lightweight boxer Robert ‘Stopper’ Quaye, prospects Mohammed Mubarak, Moses Adjei Sovereign and Peter Pappoe.
With all these boxers looking to win world titles in the future, they train under worse conditions without some basic training equipment such as mitts, gloves, head gear, punching bags and speed balls to improve on their craft.
Despite all these, the fighters believe they can make it big if they stay committed and work hard and are focused on sticking to the teachings of their trainers.
“It has been great since moving here to train and I believe with time I will get to my destination,” Sovereign told the Graphic Sports.
“We need a lot of equipment like you can see here to be able to improve on our talents but in all these, I am ready to give of my best at training.”
Emmanuel Laryea, a trainer at The Gym, stressed the need for the government to come to their aid to support them with modern boxing equipment that could help fighters whenever they came to train.
He noted that the government coming on board would benefit the state with medals and world titles in the future.
“We have been calling for this support for a very long time but to no avail and I can tell you that if we get these modern equipment then they would automatically help the boxers.
“The state should know that investing in gyms would help prepare these athletes to win laurels and word titles for the country in return,” Laryea said.
