Nigeria’s Owolabi Lawal hit a wall on Friday night at the 2017 African Confederation Boxing Championship (AFBC), taking place in Brazzaville, Congo.
That wall was Morocco’s Mohamed Hamout. Hamout defeated Lawal 5-0 on points in the quarterfinals of this highly-competitive tourney.
Lawal’s loss comes as a surprise. He’d soundly defeated Angola’s Manuel Gomes 5-0 to advance to the quarterfinals. The lightweight’s ousting means four of the seven boxers selected to represent Nigeria (three male and one female) have been eliminated from the tournament.
Nigeria’s hopes now rest on Osita Umeh (men’s welterweight) Richard Egowa (men’s light heavyweight) and Yetunde Odunuga (women’s lightweight).
The 2017 African Boxing Championship are part of the International men’s qualifiers for this 2017 World Boxing Championship in Hamburg, Germany from August 25 to September 3.
