Fresh off his victory over Frank Dodzi, IBF Africa welterweight champion Dodzi Kemeh is out to realize his world title dreams.
BoxingAfrica.com previously interviewed the now 28-year-old Kemeh two years ago, when he relocated to the U.S. from Ghana. Kemeh was based in Virginia, fighting only time in the States, a fourth-round TKO loss to Giovani Santillan in California in November 2017.
Kemeh, now 24-2, 22 KOs) returned to Ghana, fighting three times last year and another in April this year, winning all before the victory over Dodzi to annex the African 147-pound belt.
BoxingAfrica.com caught up with him, in Accra this time, to find out what happened to his U.S. dreams, whether a return is a store and more on his world title aspirations.
Congratulations on winning the Africa title, Dodzi.
Thank you, my brother.
Describe your performance versus Frank Dodzi to win the title.
I will say it wasn’t an easy fight. Every fight is serious but depends on your training and focus will let you win the fight. So, it definitely wasn’t an easy fight but I was able to manage and win the fight so I will say I thank God for everything.
Frank Dodzi is the guy who inflicted your first career defeat, was this a sweet revenge?
Sure, sure sir.
We knew you were in America and we even interviewed you about two years ago and you told us you had come to stay. But here you are back in Ghana, what happened?
Yes it’s true, I was in America and you guys interviewed me in Maryland but after that fight in California, I lost so I said let me come back to Ghana because I thought it was important to win some titles out here, because when you win a title it is easy to win the support of Ghanaians. And when you hold a title too it helps you to get to the top quickly so that’s why I took the decision to come back to Ghana to win a title, and the support of Ghanaians in order to relaunch my career.
How was the experience like fighting in America?
It was a very good experience. I will say we all know America is the boxing zone for sparring, preparation. Even sparring is very tough so fighting in America was a very good experience for me and I learnt a lot from that fight and I’m very happy to have been in America and fight in California. I’m so proud of it and I thank God for everything that happened there that day.
So, you returned to Ghana. How has it been like settling back into the system compared to the US?
I’m starting something fresh so I believe very soon all Ghanaians and indeed the world will see something fresh in me explode.
Do you have any plans of returning to stay in the US?
Surely, I will go back but I leave that side to my team, whatever they decide I will work with it. If they say I should go back, I will, if they say I should stay, train here and go and fight there, I will.
Now you are the IBF Africa champion and likely to get into the world ratings, so what next for you?
My prayer and focus is that within two years I should hold a world title for Ghana. We all know boxing is a ‘mafia’ game so I always say if you have a flower and you don’t water it, you can never see its freshness but when you water it, you will see how fresh the flower is. So now that I’m back and won this title, I believe my team will push me and very soon the world will see. Something is inside me and the world will see it explode.
Having returned to Ghana, how do you rate the boxing scene?
I think we are improving day in day out because as I speak to you, we have a world champion in Richard Commey so I will say Ghana we are very talented in boxing and I wish people will support boxing more like every year we will produce more world champions.
Support from whom, government or individuals?
We can never leave everything to government alone. Government must play a role and individuals too have roles to play, the two have to work together. People mention Mexico and America but I tell you there are so many talented boxers in Ghana who are better than those living in America, they are better than boxers who live in Mexico so when we plan well and the partnership works together, every day we will be producing a lot of boxers in Ghana to hold the world title, I’m telling you.
Finally, any message to your fans?
I will thank God, I will thank everybody who has supported me and I will thank my team too, everybody that supports me should keep on praying for me so that my dream will come true. I believe if I get the right support, in two years’ time I will win a world title for Ghana.
