GOtv Boxing Night: Babatunde “Babyface” Wins N1m Best Boxer Award
Nigeria’s sensational boxer, Rilwan ‘Babyface’ Babatunde, emerged the Best Boxer in the just concluded GOtv Boxing Night 23 following a spectacular display to defeat Beninese international, Naimou Samason, in the super welterweight bout.
The fight among six others held at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Indoor Sports Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere-Lagos, on Saturday night. Babyface won the one million naira price money attached to the Mojisola Ogunsanya Best Boxer of the night trophy.
The crunchy fight saw both fighters go toe to toe as they both seek to outsmart each other’s tactics in the early periods of the eight rounds bout. Babyface, whose strength is in his power punch ability, showed no mercy as he landed some devastating punches to overpower Samson.
However, a resolute Samson fought hard to ward off Babyface’s surge and worked to prove his defensive qualities even when on the receiving end. Samson’s ability to receive whatsoever Babyface threw at him made the bout more exhilarating as he occasionally landed some shocking blows to keep the crowd guessing on who would win the bout.
After eight rounds of action-packed fight, the three judges scored the fight 80-72, 80-72 and 80-73 in favour of the Nigerian. Babyface, who is coming from a loss he suffered from the hands of Ukraine’s Dymtro Mytrovanov for the World Boxing Organisation Oriental Middleweight title in July in Kiev, told newsmen after the fight that he was happy to win again.
“I am happy to win again. It was a great fight and my opponent was very technical and very sound. It is the victory I’m looking for to prove to my fans that I can still deliver and I am happy they really loved the fight”, Babyface said.
According to the winner, “I really thank Flykite for organising the event and giving me another opportunity to prove my worth as a champion. However, I pray for bigger challenges”.
Similarly, Samson in his reactions said that his opponent was very quick and highly sound. According to him, he will want to have another fight with him in the future.
“It was a great fight. I like the atmosphere and the opportunity to fight in the GOtv boxing night; indeed, I wish to get another opportunity to prove myself in the future,” Samson said.
Also, at another international bout the same night, Rilwan `Real one’ Oladosu made nonsense of Felix Okine from Ghana after a first round one knockout in their International Super Featherweight fight. Oladosu minced his opponent after delivering some heavy blows that made him surrender in the second round of the fight.
Similarly, Michael ‘Emirate’ Godwin beat Abiodun ‘Infinti’ Affini in the technical knockout of their third round bout of their National Cruiserweight challenge scheduled for eight rounds.
