Injury forces Joe Boy’s opponent out of Commonwealth title fight

South Africa’s Dillon Youle, who is billed to fight Nigeria’s Oto “Joe Boy” Joseph for the Commonwealth African lightweight title at the GOtv Boxing Night 12 on October 1, has pulled out from the fight on account of injury.

Dule, according to his manager, Natasha Lyon, suffered an unexpected recurrence of an injury sustained in his last fight while training on Wednesday.

“Dillon had an injury from his last fight that has flared up. His hand was fractured. While training yesterday, in a sparring session, his injury flared up and the old injury became inflamed,” explained Lyon.

She added that the boxer was eagerly looking forward to the fight and regrets the missed opportunity imposed by the “unforeseen circumstance that is out of our control, unfortunately”.

Flykite Promotions, organisers of the event, said arrangements are being made for an equally good boxer as replacement for Yule.GOtv Boxing Night 12, which holds at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos, will feature seven bouts, including four international title fights.

The cream of the crop is the African Boxing Union welterweight title defence between Nigeria’s Stanley “Edo Boy” Eribo, incumbent champion, and Ramadhani Shauri of Tanzania.

Shauri’s compatriot, Juma Fundi, will go up against Nigeria’s Waidi ‘Skoro’ Usman in an international featherweight challenge contest. In the light welterweight category, Olaide ‘Fijaborn’ Fijabi of Nigeria will stake his West African Boxing Union title when he faces Ghana’s Bilal Ibrahim.

Also in the light welterweight category, rising star, Rilwan ‘Baby Face’ Babatunde, will duel with Tombraye ‘Tornado’ Christmas. The exciting Rilwan ‘Real One’ Oladosu will stake his boxing reputation against Samuel Opaogun, while Kabiru ‘KB Godson’ Towolawi will fight Akeem Adebayo in a national light heavyweight challenge.

The boxers are in line to earn a total of N20 million in prize monies. The winner of the Mojisola Ogunsanya Memorial Award for the best boxer will go home with N2.5 million. The two runners-up will win N1 million and N500, 000 respectively.