Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Monarch Group, owner of Monarch Events and Promotions, Prince Stanley Williams has said the aim of the promotion is to take Nigeria boxing to greater heights.
Prince Williams made this known in a press conference last Wednesday in Lagos, during the hosting of newly crowned African Boxing Union (ABU) champion Adijat ‘Dija’ Gbadamosi.
Gbadamosi made history in faraway Ghana as she became the first-ever Nigerian woman to win an African boxing title.
She achieved the feat at the third edition of the ‘King of the Ring’ series which was put together by Monarch Events and Promotions inside the Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra, Ghana on Friday, 16 June 2023.
Also present at the press conference was fast rising light heavyweight boxer Victor Beneth.
According to Prince Williams, Monarch wants to bridge the gap between Africa and the rest of the world in terms of organizing boxing events.
“We still have a long way in boxing and what Monarch is here to do is to try and bridge the gap between Africa and the rest of the world and taking our talents all over the globe. So, we are trying to simplify the process which seems almost impossible to achieve.
“Our aim is to make sure we take boxing to higher heights and providing boxing fans all around the world with exclusive shows and enlist the best. We’ve been doing smaller events and also, we’ve been doing big events. Our company is based in the UK and the US and it’s only right for us to push towards global recognition for Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
“We had a recent event in Ghana which was the third edition of the King of the Ring which was a terrific event, and we had a very warm reception from the Ghanaian boxing fans. So, we took some of our champions there for them to fight over there.
“There are more championship fights in the future, some will still come to Nigeria by God‘s grace. The one we took to Ghana was on special request because when you take boxing to certain places is like the boxing fans don’t understand the amount of resources is being put together to make it elite.
“So elite boxing shows are the kind of shows that gain recognition the smaller ones are the ones that put boxers in position to fight in elite boxing events.“
He stressed the importance of having the right mindset when it comes to running boxing in Nigeria and also Africa.
“Boxing is one of the major sports in the whole world, it is very capital intensive and it can also generate a lot of revenue but in Africa it does not generate revenue, it seems like a charity project.
“So, the same way we love football is the same way we should embrace boxing because each event in boxing brings about the same sort of recognition that football brings and I don’t think a lot of people are understanding it in this our own part of the world.
“We are trying to force the doors open so that things can start happening because if we keep quiet and continue our promotions overseas people will keep complaining that we are not replicating what we are doing abroad back home.”
–completesports.com
