On 29th November 2020, the Ghanaian boxing world waited in bated breath for the country’s first professional boxing show since the government eased restrictions on contact sports back in September 2020.
Unfortunately, the show which was being organised in a collaboration between Box Office Sports Promotions and Ace Power Promotions would not come to be due to the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) being unable to get the COVID-19 tests needed from the government as explained by the authority’s General Secretary Patrick Johnson
“We are supposed to request for the test of COVID through the National Sports Authority (NSA) to the Ministry [of Youth and Sports], and we wrote the letter to them but as of now we’ve still not heard anything from them and we don’t want to risk our boxers, we don’t want to risk our officials.”
Although their plans to bring back professional boxing to the country hit a roadblock, the collaborative team of Box Office Sports Promotions and Ace Power Promotions were still committed to bringing the sports back to Ghanaians and boxing fans across the world.
“We are looking to set a date which will go not too far beyond two weeks because we have discussed Plan B; if we cannot get the government to support for the COVID test, we have heard there are some places that the fee for the test is lower and we have spoken to the GBA to go in as a corporate organization to negotiate so that we can get it at a cheaper price.” CEO of Box Office Promotions Alex Ntiamoah-Boakye revealed in an exclusive interview with The Pressbox.
Well, the hard work seems to have paid off as on Tuesday 8th December 2020, Ace Power Promotions revealed on their official Instagram account that Thursday 24th December 2020 was to be the new date of their cancelled “Knockout COVID-19” show.
“We are back on track, we are now organising it on the 24th of this month and now, that date is confirmed and definitely it is going to come this time around.” Managing Director (MD) of Ace Power Promotions, Isaac Amankwaah, revealed confidently when speaking to The Pressbox.
So what makes the promoter so confident this time around “The difference between then and now is that now the letter has already gone and we have also finished the elections so people are back and we are hoping and we have put our fingers crossed that this time around we will get it in time.” Isaac said
“We have also gone ahead to have a Plan B, the point is that because of what happened initially we don’t want a situation whereby we will be forced to postpone this fight again. So what we have done is to have a Plan B where we have gotten a facility which has been accredited by the Ghana Health Service (GHS), so that in case we don’t get the government one we can go ahead and privately do it.” The Ace Power Promotions, MD concluded.
As we look forward to “Knockout COVID-19” we should also be getting ready for more boxing goodness as GBA General Secretary, Patrick Johnson, revealed in an interview with KBOXtv that other promoters have also shown their interest in holding shows before 2020 ends.
“On the 16th [of December] is Fight Ready Promotions, on the 20th [of December] is Winbase Promotions, on the 23rd [of December] Fight Ready Promotions on the 26th [of December] in collaboration with Box Office Promotions and Cabic Promotions.”
