It’s Richard Commey fight week and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Commey, the former IBF world lightweight champion, will make his 140-pound debut on Saturday night against former two-division world champion Jose Pedraza at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The fight represents Commey’s fifth straight headlining event on U.S. network giant, ESPN. Only a victory can keep that streak going.
Commey has lost two of his last three bouts, including a unanimous decision defeat to three-division titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko last December. Oddsmakers have him listed as an underdog ahead of Saturday night.
Yet Commey had his game face on as he and Pedraza came face to face during Thursday’s final press conference (video below). Being overlooked isn’t uncommon for the Accra, Ghana native.
“There has never been a fight of mine which has been an easy fight,” Commey said in an interview with YouTube channel Ace TV Boxing.
In or out of the ring.
Who could have foreseen this sort of success for Commey while he was raised by a single mother in Bukom, a coastal fishing town on the outskirts of Ghana’s capital city Accra? The town may be lauded for rearing many of Africa’s greatest warriors, but few understand how impoverished it is. The surrounding Accra suburbs are full of luxurious estates, with enough servants to make Prince Akeem jealous.
Not so in Bukom, where residents relieve themselves on the same beach they bathe in and toddlers just old enough to walk play on top of landfills in tattered clothes.
The talented Commey was determined to make it. He played soccer for an amateur league in Ghana before turning to martial arts. He was one of the country’s top kickboxers when Japanese recruiters discovered him in 2007, taking him around the world to compete before he ultimately settled in the United Arab Emirates.
Yet it was boxing which brought him glory. After being discovered by manager Michael Amoo-Bediako, Commey had only 12 amateur fights before turning pro in 2011. He rose quickly through the ranks, nearly upsetting the odds when he was on the wrong end of a hotly contested split decision verdict to Robert Easter Jr. in their battle for a vacant world title.
Commey never wavered despite the setback. Three years later, he became Ghana’s ninth world champion when he flatted Russia’s Isa Chaniev in two rounds.
Now Commey, 35, 30-4 (27 KOs), will seek to do it all over again, this time in a new weight class against the 33-year-old Pedraza (29-4, 14 KOs), a smooth boxer-puncher whose only stoppage loss came at the hands of Gervonta “Tank” Davis in 2017.
“I’ve been back in the gym since I got back from Ghana in March,” Commey said during Thursday’s conference. “I always train hard and work on myself because I know boxing is not an easy sport. You have to be ready before you get in the ring, so I always make sure I’m 100 percent ready.”
Commey has already accomplished feats beyond his wildest dreams. He has already achieved far more than many expected. This time, Richard Commey has nothing to lose.
What does that mean for Saturday night?
“Don’t hold back. Just go in there and go all out.”
And let the chips fall where they may.
