| credits:
Olu Moses, who is still actively involved in boxing as a coach at 83, shares his experiences with ADEOLA BALOGUN and OLUFEMI ATOYEBI
At 83, you are still involved in boxing. Why are you not retired?
Boxing is my life. It is difficult to do
without it. Besides, age has not affected my passion for the sport and
that is why I still train the young ones to become good boxers. The
boys I train now are preparing for the 2013 National Sports Festival,
which is coming up in Lagos. I want them to be like me. I want them to
make progress in the game. I believe that when we have boys and train
them right from a youthful age, they will grow up to become champions in
life.
Don’t you think that you are straining yourself beyond your natural limit?
I am blessed with good health. I don’t
always fall sick and I go for occasional medical check-ups. God has been
very good to me. He has kept me strong and provides for me. The only
condition that can make me feel uncomfortable with my body is if I wake
up and somehow I am unable to jog to the stadium from my house.
Is longevity common in your family?
I think it is just a special gift from
God to some people. My father was 73 years old when he died and my
mother was already 85 before she departed, too. I am gradually
surpassing their age limit.
How did you become a boxer?
It was in 1948. One day I went to a
football pitch and I witnessed a group of teenagers with older men who
had tried to cheat them. The boys were playing football when the men
came and tried to chase them away from the pitch. The teenagers warned
them to stop and when the latter refused, a fight broke out. Using
boxing skills, the boys beat the men until they bled from the injuries
sustained from the fight. They continued with their game, while their
opponents ran away. I cherished that moment and I made up my mind to
join them. When I asked them where they came from, they said they were
members of Yaba Boys Club. The club had produced many great boxers in
Nigeria in those days. I approached the secretary the second day and
told him that I would be glad if he could include my name in the
register. I met the popular and talented boxer, Teddy Odus, at the club.
He was one of our trainers at the time.
Do you still recall some members of the club?
As I have earlier said, Teddy Odus was a
prominent member of the club. Also, we had Homicide Ilori and many
others. I was in secondary school at that time. After closing from
school, I would go to the club and resume training until I got a job at
Costain West Africa in Lagos.
Did your parents oppose your decision to be a boxer?
My parents loved sports and boxing was
popular in those days. Today, parents allow their children to start a
career in football because it is lucrative. Perhaps, my parents did not
know the extent of my involvement in boxing, which was considered a
dangerous sport at the time. I always kept my kits hidden from them.
Whenever I felt the need to wash the kits, I did it secretly. When I was
working in the stores department of Costain, my manager, who was a
white man, didn’t know I was a boxer. But he found out durng a boxing
match one Christmas Day. All the boys that were billed to fight that
day were asked to invite their bosses to the event. When my manager saw
me, he said, ‘Moses, what are you doing here?’ That day, I fought one
of the boys from the National Boxing Club in Idi-Oro (Lagos) and won the
fight in the third round. I was given many prizes. In those days,
amateur boxers did not receive cash prizes. But many of the managers at
my workplace said I should see them in their offices the following
Monday. I went to see them and they gave me 10 shillings each. That was
how I became popular in Costain and my job was secure for the 40 years
that I worked there.
What else did you benefit from boxing?
One day, one of the rascals that used to
molest people on the railway line between Costain and Surulere tried to
harass me and I punched him hard. As we were fighting, some of my
colleagues who were passing by cheered me. The fellow ran away and that
was the end of harassment on that road. The bush path was full of
chestnut trees at that time, but when the National Stadium was built,
all the trees were cut down.
How did boxing give you job security at Costain?
We built the boxing ring in 1949. I was
one of those who spearheaded the initiative. The company later started a
boxing club. Let me say that I am the founder of the club. Some boys
from Isheri and Lagos joined us. The club became very popular in Lagos
and the boxers trained in the club fought and won medals everywhere in
Nigeria. Mr. Olowookere was one of the executive directors of the
company, he was an engineer and he really supported us because he loved
sport. Then boxing was the top sport and we had one of the best boxing
rings in the country at Costain. We won the Lagos State championship for
about two years.
Did you contest a national title?
No, I didn’t because I had to go back to
school. I stopped fighting after the final of Glover Hall Championship
where I had to face the captain of my club. I lost to him in the third
round and I got a silver medal. Then I sat for the entrance examination
to Yaba Technical School, now Yaba College of Technology. We were the
first set to be admitted into the school. I studied carpentry. Later I
had to change my course to stenography. I worked in the store at Costain
and I stumbled on an advert of the International Correspondence School
in an international newspaper. I enrolled in the school to study
storekeeping. In 1971, I was awarded a certificate and I got a raise in
the office due to my further training at the ICS.
How did you become a boxing coach?
At a time when the Europeans at Costain
were going back to their countries, they told me that I should keep the
flag of the boxing club flying because they would be looking at the
Costain bulletin to see how it was doing after their departure. That was
how I took over the management of the club. I attended the first
coaching course organised by Hogan Bassey at Railway Recreation ground.
Some of the boxers I trained became champions in the amateur and
professional categories. Some of them ended up as coaches.
Can you tell us their names?
The first person was Siki Panther. His
real name was Sikiru Alimi. He was a very strong boy. He participated in
the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964 with Nojeem Maiyegun. Maiyegun won a
bronze medal, while Panther lost in the quarterfinals. Then, there was
Jerome Korede, who represented Nigeria in a competition in Zambia, where
he won a bronze medal. In the professional category, I had Cyprian
Emmeti. He won the national title in Nigeria and we went to Ghana to
fight for the African title and beat his opponent in the fifth round.
There was Jose Napole, who is in Italy now. He was a national champion
in Nigeria before he left and I have not heard from him. Kehinde Balogun
was another national champion. Then there was Jude Agu, who was a
cruiserweight champion before he travelled out of Nigeria. After that,
there was Bartholomew, who we called the Animal. He was a heavyweight
champion in Nigeria for many years before he left for South Africa.
Also, I trained Ray Adio, who was a lightweight champion for many years.
In fact, the Costain Boxing Club produced many good boxers. It is sad
that the club died after many years.
Having trained many champion boxers, would you say that you have been duly recognised for your efforts in Nigeria?
I have only been recognised by Lagos
State where I became a ring judge. At one point, I was involved in
almost every boxing event in the country. Today, I am the oldest boxing
official in the state.
Are you paid to train these boys here?
Ever since I left Costain, I have not had any paid employment.
How do you assess boxing in Nigeria?
Boxing died because of lack of support.
In the past, things were different. Expatriates supported boxing in
those days, while the government did nothing for the sport. I remember
that UAC brought in a lot of materials and employed many of our boys.
Without promoters, boxing cannot grow.
Did you interact with Hogan Bassey when he was alive?
Of course, he knew me quite well. We
grew up from Yaba Boys Club before he left for the United Kingdom in the
late 1950s. Nobody knew that he would become a world champion some day,
but he was always fearless in the ring. By the time he moved to
England, he was said to be faster than boxers who grew up in the UK. He
was a short man, but he was very determined and quick to respond to
punches.
Nowadays everybody wants to
play football because of the big money in it. In your time, what
motivated boxers in their chosen career?
It was not money. In those days, boxing
was more popular than any other sport. Why would anyone leave boxing and
go into football in those days? Football thrived only at the school
level, while boxing clubs flourished in Lagos. The achievements of
people like Hogan Bassey helped to make the sport very popular in
Nigeria. So did Dick Tiger, Segun Ajose and so on. When I heard about
the death of the former President of the Nigeria Boxing Board of
Control, Laide Adeboye, I knew boxing in Nigeria would suffer. Ajose
knew everybody that mattered. He was the man behind Samuel Peter’s rise
in boxing. He had the means and the time to attend all the boxing
conferences and he was at the ring side when Peter fought. If he was
still alive, a man like Segun Ajose would have become a world champion
because he beat the last man in Las Vegas. Adeboye would have arranged
another person to fight Ajose when the title holder refused to face him.
That is the tragedy of the sport, when the man who knows more about
something is not there, the game suffers.
Have you ever been injured as a boxer?
Yes, I was injured in the eye once. By
then, if you wanted to go into real boxing, no manager would take you if
your cheekbones were too smooth; they must shoot out due to continuous
punching. There was no protective head gear then and when you wanted to
punch, you punched the face. Before we knew anything about protective
gears, it took some time. The lips were taking the punishment and they
were broken many times. Many materials for boxing were out of the reach
before we began to advance. People who had the knowledge, particularly
the Europeans, brought in the materials later. My knuckles were rough
until recently when they became smooth. We used gloves then, but they
barely covered the hands, unlike the ones that are being used today.
At what point did you begin to think of making money as a boxer?
One thing is that I didn’t do it
professionally. Some of the boys that I trained occasionally gave me
money after they became champions. But my joy then really was to see
them win, even after they might have left me. Some of them would bring
drinks and ask me to pray for them.
In what other way has boxing positively impacted on your life?
Boxing taught me self discipline and I
owe my good health to the sport. Boxing will teach you to be disciplined
when it comes to social activities. You must not drink, smoke or be a
womaniser. Girls were all over me because of my popularity, but I knew
where I came from. So I didn’t get involved in relationship until I was
ready to get married.
When did you start raising a family?
It took me a very long time settle down
because I am the kind of person that will not stop something until I see
it to the end. At the age of 35, I decided to get married after I was
convinced that I would able to cater for a family.
Was the woman you eventually married a boxing fan?
Initially, she didn’t know that I was a
boxer. When she eventually found out, she wanted to back out. She was
afraid that a boxer would be beating her. One thing that people don’t
know is that boxers are the most tolerant people in the world. As a
boxer, you are not expected to be seen fighting anywhere. When she was
apprehensive, she was persuaded that nothing would happen to her, that
boxers were not the dredge of the society. So she calmed down. I thank
God that we lived a beautiful family life. No matter what, there is
nothing you do to me that will make me angry. Women will be women any
day. Except a few times we had disagreement, we never quarrelled. In
fact, I never beat her because I understand her perfectly. Because I
love the European life, when I tell my wife to sit down here until I
come back, she will obey me and remain on that seat. That was how I
trained her. That is how we are living as husband and wife. She never
gave me any problem and thank God, we are Christians.
Where is your wife now?
She is not that healthy now and she is staying with one of our children. But we are still one.
Did any of your children show interest in boxing?
None of them did. But they are all doing
well. My first son would have loved to take after me. But as a young
man, he got injured in the eye when one of his school mates threw a
stone at him. The injury was treated, but I knew that if he got involved
in boxing with such an injured eye, his opponent would capitalise on it
and target the spot. That could be dangerous.
When will you retire from boxing?
I will continue to train young men until
I can no longer do so. I won’t say I am old because everyone knows that
if I stay at home now, I may fall sick. If any of my children feels
that I should stay back at home, he or she must be ready to find me
something else to do that will take my time. I know that by doing
exercises, I have remained very healthy. I wake up every morning by 5
o’clock, take my bath and set out on road work. I will stop when God
says it is time for me to stop.
