Pro boxers celebrate Aboderin at 60 News

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Pro boxers celebrate Aboderin at 60

By Daily Sports Nigeria on August 18, 2026

Members of the Progressive Professional Boxers Association of Nigeria, led by President Idris Afini, paid a courtesy visit to the General Secretary of the Nigerian Boxing Board of Control, Remi Aboderin, on Monday, to felicitate with him on his Diamond Jubilee celebration.

The delegation, which also included Vice President, Obinna Mathew; General Secretary, Sikiru Sogbesan; Assistant General Secretary, Hamza Idris; Treasurer, Samuel Opaogun; and Bolatito “Black Tito” Oluwole, among other members, said they came to show appreciation to Aboderin for the strides he had made in developing professional boxing in Nigeria since taking charge of the sport’s administration.

The delegates said they were well aware of where professional boxing stood before Aboderin’s emergence and where it had gotten to under his watch, expressing confidence that the sport would continue to improve under his leadership and that of NBBofC President, Dr Rafiu Oladipo.

They said that, owing to Aboderin’s leadership, professional boxers were now enjoying the dividends of their sweat and blood shed in training, both in the gym and in the ring.

The boxers urged Aboderin not to rest on his laurels and to discountenance detractors, assuring him that the professional boxing fraternity remained solidly behind the NBBofC under Oladipo and other members of the board.

They further pledged their readiness to embrace whatever reforms the board intends to introduce around the health and remuneration of boxers, noting that such reforms were designed to improve their welfare in the sport.

Responding, Aboderin said he was deeply honoured, not just by the delegation’s presence but also by the birthday gift presented to him.

He said hard times do not last, but hard people do, adding that although boxing is regarded as the gentleman’s sport, only hard people get involved in it.

“That hard times don’t last, but hard people do,” Aboderin said.

“Though the sport we are into is called the gentleman’s sport, only hard people get involved in it, thus, no matter the obstacles we are facing now, it would be surmounted by His grace and by the unity of all, because we are no lily-livered people.”

Aboderin, who turned 60 last Friday, has served as General Secretary of the NBBofC since emerging victorious in a keenly contested election, and has remained one of the most prominent voices in Nigerian boxing administration.

Source Punch Ng

Posted August 18, 2026