Soul Mamby Mamby of Jamaica was in Lagos to defend his world Welterweight boxing belt against Golden Gloves, Obisia Nwakpa, in 1981. It was like coming back home, there is so much between his country and Nigeria. There is Abeokuta in the Land of Reggae just like they have Calabar High School.
And it turned out good for him. His challenger, a Nigeria Army Warrant Officer, suddenly found out that he was overweight and had to start running round the National Stadium to drop some fat. A boxing novice would have thought it was a marathon race, run by one man. Or better still, a long distance event with one man leading the pack comfortably.
Obisia lost the excess weight, jumped unto the ring as light and flexible as expected and began to thrill the crowd. Mamby watched and soaked it all. He knew his opponent would run out of steam. It happened. The Nigerian soon boxed himself out of relevance and the Jamaican began to pick valuable points with pin-point damaging jabs.
It turned out to be an anti climax. Obisia was not himself. The gold was not part of his gloves. The 1974 Commonwealth gold medalist found that Mamby was too hard to crack. The dream of producing a Third Nigerian world professional boxing champion faded into the swamps, beyond Sportscity.
Compatriots had every reason to bank on their own. It was at the same venue that he shocked Africa in 1973. Fighting in the Welterweight category at the Second All Africa Games, Obisia defeated Issaka Dabore of Niger Republic to win Nigeria’s first boxing gold of the championships.
Dabore was a hero, having won bronze at the Munich ’72 Olympics Games. Obisia was in Munich but lost in his first fight to Laudiel Negron of Pueto Rico. Beating Dabore in Lagos, just four months after the Olympics earned Obisia the nickname ,’ Golden Gloves’
Dabore was one of the seven African pugilists that won medals in Germany. The others were silver medalists, Phillip Wairunge of Kenya and Leo Rwabwogo of Kenya. Nigeria’s only medal, a bronze in the Light Heavyweight class came through Isaac Ikhuoria. Ghana’s Joe Amartey won bronze too , so did the Kenyan duo of Samuel Mbugua and Dick Tiger Murunga.
Unfortunately, against Mamby, Obisia could not do what Richard ‘Dick Tiger’ Ihetu did to Gene Fulmer at the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan two decades earlier.
Lagos was more than home. Obisia, though an Ngwa Igbo from Abia State, stayed behind in Nigeria while his people fought the Civil War as Biafrans. Born In Lagos, he also spent time in a Remand home around Mapara. That was where his boxing skill was noticed.
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Losing to Mamby was heart breaking. Nigerians cried buckets. Obisia never really recovered for he retired without becoming a world champion.
Obisia’s miss was a re enactment of the lot of Enugu Rangers in the final match of the 1975 CAF Champion’s League. The Flying Antelopes fell to Guinean champions, Hafia, at the National Stadium, Surulere. The losers ran out of energy in a match coach Dan Anyiam refused to replace an exhausted Dominic Nwobodo.
Nwobodo, also known as Alhaji was a Biafran commando and almost forced his way into the selection at a time his glory was in reverse gear. As punishment, Anyiam wanted him to really show Nigerians that he had nothing to offer after winning an All Africa Games gold like Obisia.
Rangers were in excellent form. They qualified for the finals at the expense of Mehalla, Egypt. In the finals first leg in Conakry, Alioune [Njo Lea] Keita’s made the difference for the Guineans. The Flying Antelopes felt they could easily cancel the goal in Lagos.
Some days to the second leg, NFA officials had to beg Rangers to move over to Lagos in order to get used to the turf. They refused. Twenty four hours to the decider, Coal City still hosted the team at Christian Onoh’s Hill Top Hotel. NFA boss Sunday Dankaro sent Ibikunle Armstrong to Enugu to warn the team of the danger ahead.
Eventually, the boys arrived at about 10 pm and had to squeeze themselves into hotel rooms. To them Hafia sounded like Kaloum Stars, the team they sent out in 1971.That was Rangers debut.
Hafia beat Rangers again in Lagos to run away with the trophy. Rangers were over confident. They forgot that Hafia had won the cup in 1972 after defeating Simba of Uganda, home and away. Of course Hafia also won again in 1977 stopping Accra Hearts of Oaks, home and away. The Guineans also lost in the finals, twice. In 1976 and 1978 respectively.
