Joseph ‘King Kong’ Agbeko to resurrect boxing in Ghana?
On March 22, 2013, Joseph Agbeko
dethroned Colombian born Luis Melendez in a 12 round unanimous decision fight at the Accra sports stadium in Ghana to become the new International Boxing Organization Bantamweight Champion of the world. I had the opportunity of chatting with Joseph ‘King Kong’ Agbeko a few weeks after the Ghanaian fighter became a champion.
Sometime in April of 2013, I called Agbeko to talk about his comeback fight that saw him enter the ring for the first time in over a year. The fight was also his first fight in Ghana in over 5 years. Agbeko told me he was really happy to have defeated Melendez after being inactive for about 15 months and he looked forward to getting busy this year by taking on more big name.
Agbeko has a record of 33 fights in which he has won 29 of which 22 are knockouts. He has suffered three defeats and (never been knockout out) has never drawn a match till date. When I asked the boxer why he preferred to hold his last fight in Ghana, he told me that he wanted to use it as an opportunity to formally outdoor Fresh Kings
Entertainment, which promoted that match.
Fresh Kings Entertainment is an entertainment company owned by Joseph Agbeko involved in the promotion of sports and entertainment events with its primary focus of making boxing more attractive to local and international sponsorship in Ghana.
The ultimate goal of Fresh Kings is to work with the government and Ghana Boxing Association to help create homebred international prizefighters. ‘I want to raise the level of boxing in Ghana by creating more champions in the likes of Azumah ‘Zoom Zoom’ Nelson, Ike ‘Bazooka’ Quartey and other great champions of boxing from Ghana.’
When I asked ‘King Kong’ whether he was going to bankroll his next fight like he did in the Melendez match, he said it was time to start making money, which is why he is looking at relocating to the USA. He is now considering the possibility of setting up his base in Las Vegas because ‘the altitude in Vegas is very high and good for the kind of sports I do, besides, I also hope to fight a more big opponents to increase my profile and coffers’ he tells me.
The IBO champion who has some bad blood between him and Don King; one of the world’s greatest promoters in the game of boxing over winning purse revealed to me that he his presently in talks with Oscar Delahoya’s Golden Boy Promotions Inc to become his promoter and things are looking positive with the likelihood of an agreement being reached soon.
Joseph ‘King Kong’ Agbeko says he expects to be back in the boxing ring sometime in the middle of 2013 to possibly face Cuban born Guillermo Rigondeaux. Rigondeaux defeated Nonito ‘The Filipino Flash’ Donaire in a unanimous decision at the world renowned Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York on April 13, 2013.
The Ghanaian born pugilist says he is thankful to be back on top and has his eyes set on going higher so he is open to fighting whoever his promoter at the time manages to arrange a bout with and is eager to make history in the world of boxing.
Written by Oral Ofori
