SEGUN AJOSE: WHY I TOOK THE RISK. TO BE A BOXER

Segun Ajose is a Lagosian, even though my parents come from Ogun State. I was born and bred in Lagos, I schooled in Lagos and represented Lagos in the National Sports Festival, won a gold medal and joined the Nigerian Army. So all my life, most of my life, I’ve lived in Shomolu, before I started representing the country. I won gold at the All Africa Games in South Africa, went to the Olympics, won many international invitational tournaments in Europe and turned professional. I won the Nigerian title and the African title, won the Commonwealth title and the British title, fought for a world title and still going. So I went through my career stage by stage, I didn’t just burst on to the scene all of a sudden, it was a process.
Actually, I never wanted to turn pro , I disliked the pros in the past when I was growing up so I thought I was just going to do the amateur, then when I’m done, go to school then stop boxing. But then when I went to the Sydney Olympics, I was robbed against an American and when I got back, the Boxing Federation then wanted me to continue in the amateur ranks, but I was of the opinion then that if I wait in the amateur and I go to the Athens Olympics, there is no guarantee that I would also not be robbed in the Olympics and we weren’t really getting enough preparations here in Nigeria. So I thought you know what, I’ll just try to compensate for what I missed in the amateur, which is winning a gold medal in the Olympics because all the guys that won medals in the Olympics, I had beaten them on the international scene before the Olympics. The one who won a bronze medal, I beat him in the All Africa Games, the guy who won the second bronze medal, the Cuban, I beat him before the Olympics, the gold medalist was the most scared of me, the silver medalist was the one I was robbed against. So I was felt like, forget about it, maybe I would just try to compensate for it by turning pro and winning a world title in the process and that has been my goal so far, that’s what I have been working on achieving.
So you can please contact segun on his twitter handle @ajoseolusegun or his facebook page olusegunajose or through his agent, ben_gray@btinternet.com.