By Oral Ofori
 |
| Photo: NEPHP |
On March 22, 2013, Joseph Agbeko
dethroned Colombian born Luis Melendez in a 12 round unanimous decision fight
at the Accra sports stadium in Ghana to become the new International Boxing
Organization Bantamweight Champion of the world. I had the opportunity of
chatting with Joseph ‘King Kong’ Agbeko a few weeks after the Ghanaian fighter became a champion.
Sometime in April of 2013, I called
Agbeko to talk about his comeback fight that saw him enter the ring for the
first time in over a year. The fight was also his first fight in Ghana in over
5 years. Agbeko told me he was really happy to have defeated Melendez after
being inactive for about 15 months and he looked forward to getting busy this
year by taking on more big name.Agbeko has a record of 33 fights in which he has won 29 of which 22 are knockouts. He has suffered three defeats and (never been knockout out) has never drawn a match till date. When I asked the boxer why he preferred to hold his last fight in Ghana, he told me that he wanted to use it as an opportunity to formally outdoor Fresh Kings Entertainment, which promoted that match.
Fresh Kings Entertainment is an
entertainment company owned by Joseph Agbeko involved in the promotion of
sports and entertainment events with its primary focus of making boxing more
attractive to local and international sponsorship in Ghana.
The ultimate goal of Fresh Kings is
to work with the government and Ghana Boxing Association to help create
homebred international prizefighters. ‘I want to raise the level of boxing in
Ghana by creating more champions in the likes of Azumah ‘Zoom Zoom’ Nelson,
Ike ‘Bazooka’ Quartey and
other great champions of boxing from Ghana’.
When I asked ‘King Kong’ whether he
was going to bankroll his next fight like he did in the Melendez match, he said
it was time to start making money, which is why he is looking at relocating to
the USA. He is now considering the possibility of setting up his base in Las
Vegas because ‘the altitude in Vegas is very high and good for the kind of
sports I do, besides, I also hope to fight a more big opponents to increase my
profile and coffers’ he tells me.
The IBO champion who has some bad
blood between him and Don King; one of the world’s greatest promoters in the
game of boxing over winning purse revealed to me that he his presently in talks
with Oscar Delahoya’s Golden Boy Promotions Inc to become his promoter and things are looking positive with the likelihood of
an agreement being reached soon.
Joseph ‘King Kong’ Agbeko says he
expects to be back in the boxing ring sometime in the middle of 2013 to
possibly face Cuban born Guillermo Rigondeaux. Rigondeaux defeated Nonito
‘The Filipino Flash’ Donaire in a unanimous decision at the world renowned
Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York on April 13, 2013.
The Ghanaian
born pugilist says he is thankful to be back on top and has his eyes set on
going higher so he is open to fighting whoever his promoter at the time manages
to arrange a bout with and is eager to make history in the world of boxing.
