Akeem Anifowoshe
Akeem Anifowoshe ( born September 11, 1968 in Nigeria, † December 1, 1994 ) was a Nigerian professional boxer.
Biography
Akeem grew up with eight siblings, the son of a truck driver and a bar owner in Lagos. At the age of 14, he began boxing and soon won regional and national championships. In 1984 he came to the Nigerian Olympic team and should participate in the Summer Games in Los Angeles, but there was not approved because of his age. Instead of returning to Nigeria, he remained in the U.S. and trained under Doc Broadus, who had Akeem met during an Olympic training camp. Akeem then lived in Las Vegas where he attended Rancho High School.
In 1986, he launched bantamweight at the 4th World Championships in Reno, Nevada. After a bye in the first round, he moved into the second round, where he defeated the Canadians Chuck Evans 4-1. However, in the quarter-finals he lost to the later Bronze medalist Yuri Alexandrov from the Soviet Union 0:5. Disappointed with the resignation, then he moved into the professional.
In May 1988, he married his girlfriend Sharon and got with her two sons, Akeem Kazeem and junior. In order to finance a life of its own with his family, he was almost every two months in the ring and punched it to fight exchanges of initially $ 350 to $ 15,000 eventually.
By early 1990 he had won each of his 17 fights, including 12 by knockout. Among the defeated opponents included not only a series of construction adversaries boxer with positive balances fight like Rommy Gary (10-1) and Santiago Caballero ( 34-5 ). On April 12, 1990, he won by whacked in the seventh round against Cesar Armando Martinez ( 10-1) and was told then by the North American Boxing Federation to the new North American champion in the super flyweight. The title he defended then each by knockout against Guillermo Flores, Ricardo Mijares, Jose Montiel ( 33-5 ) and Lucilo Nolasco, he also beat in a non-title fight Claudemir Dias Carvalho ( 19-1 ) early in round eight.
On 15 June 1991, he finally got the chance at the world title of the IBF Super Flyweight against Robert Quiroga ( 17-0 ) from the USA; he punched it in San Antonio, the hometown of his opponent. Akeem provided with Quiroga a technically clean, hard-hitting battle over the full twelve rounds and was particularly useful yet in the last two rounds, but was at the end Quiroga to the unanimous decision declared the winner. Shortly after the battle result Akeem broke even in the ring together and was taken to Baptist Medical Center in San Antonio, where he had to be removed from the brain of a blood clot. Quiroga was so badly drawn after the fight that he was no more then interview, but was immediately taken to the emergency room of the same hospital where he had to be sewn heavy Cutverletzungen on the chin, the eyebrows and eyelids. The Ring Magazine chose the fight to the " Fight of the Year 1991 '.
Due to the injuries of the two boxers beat Texas Boxoffizielle before the introduction of 8 -ounce boxing gloves instead of the 6 -ounce gloves used previously in IBF title fights in low weight classes. Quiroga about had testified to never want to fight again with 6 -ounce gloves. The Boxkomissionen the states of Texas, Nevada and Iowa tested then a ban of these gloves for future battles, while the IBF was a medical examination in order. Finally, the 6 -ounce gloves were retired.
Akeem, who was up to his injury led as number 5 in the IBF world ranking and only 22 years old, was forced to resign from boxing for health reasons. The boxing federation permanently deprived him of the professional license. He returned to his native Nigeria and still practiced from the sport of boxing, although the State Nigeria he refused a professional license. Akeem died on 1 December 1994 at the age of 26 years after he had collapsed after a workout in the shower room.