I didn't neglect boxing,says George-Taylor

The President of Nigeria Amateur Boxing Federation (NABF), Rotimi George-Taylor, has denied allegations from some quarters that he neglected his duties as head of boxing in the country in preference for football.

George-Taylor was the Chairman LOC Ijebu-Ode sub-committee of the recently concluded FIFA Under-17 World Cup, and due to inactivity of the board especially the failure of the boxing board to organise National Open Boxing Championship last October as promised by the board, some amateur boxing coaches, lamenting the inactivity and lack of competitions for their boxers, accused the boxing helms man of misplaced priority.

Defence

But George-Taylor said he combined the two jobs well, "the Minister of Sports said the U-17 took him away from other sports, but for me I was there all along, pushing for opportunities to make sure something happened in boxing from the U-17," he said.

One of the gains of pushing for boxing at the cadet World Cup according to the boxing president is "a solid promise from Amos Adamu for a boxing ring, and N1 million sponsorship for a championship."

Commonwealth plans

Reacting to the question whether the Commonwealth Games performance will not be like the AIBA World Boxing Championship where all the Nigeria representative were sent packing right from their first fights, going by the non-preparation of the boxers and with less than a year to the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi India, George-Taylor replied that plans are afoot to organise a national championship where the winners will be taken on foreign tours, saying the debacle at Milan in the World Boxing Championship was due of lack of international exposure, which they want to rectify now before the Commonwealth Games.

Two of the three boxers that represented Nigeria at the World Championship, Olarenwaju Durodola and Onoriode Ohwarieme have both represented the country at both All African Games and the Olympics.

Speaking more on plans at the federation, he said, "we are looking at it in a more technical way now so that we can win medals at the Commonwealth."