World heavyweight Champion Anthony
Joshua is presented with the Ooni of Ife's official congratulations by a
leading Nigerian boxer Larry Ekundayo Thursday night at the 02 Arena in London,
U.K.
Nigerian boxing hero, Anthony
Joshua, was touched and humbled to receive the Ooni of Ife's official
congratulations on his recent, dramatic unifying of the World Heavyweight
Championship.
Announcing this to the press crews,
Larry Ekundayo said, ''I was hugely honoured to be asked by the Ooni of Ife to
deliver his personal congratulation letter directly to Anthony Joshua last
night. The Ooni has really got behind Nigerian boxers, as he is one of
Nigeria's visionary leaders, lover of sport and youth development having seen
the potential for Nigeria to deliver World Champions of our own! "
The Yoruba King was the first
Nigerian leader to officially have his congratulatory letter hand delivered and
recognised by Anthony Joshua. Recall that the Ooni already blessed, endorse and
supported other Nigerian boxers (Larry Ekundayo and Olusegun Ajose), a fact
which did not go unnoticed by the Heavyweight King. The Champion, who is very
proud of his Nigerian roots, was touched by the personal letter, and he
expressed a genuine interest in hearing how Nigeria had gotten behind him for
his recent win.
The letter which was facilitated by
Nigerian Lawyer - Bob Olukoya Esq., was hand delivered to AJ by elite Nigerian
fighter, Larry Ekundayo and Ben Gray, the Commercial Agent for Nigerian boxers
recognised for specialising in helping Nigeria to deliver on its huge wealth of
boxing talent.
Reading it several times, Anthony
beamed at its contents and was obviously honoured to receive it, even promising
to frame the letter and put it on his wall at home! He looked forward to one
day meeting the Ooni in person. Joshua and his team are already in early
discussions with World Class Athletes based in London to visit Nigeria on an
official tour of the country, so there is every chance that the Heavyweight
King will be meeting the King of the Yoruba people in the near future.
Anthony encouraged all Nigerians to
get behind their boxers, especially Ekundayo, ahead of his forthcoming
Commonwealth title bout and even recorded a special, personalised message for
Larry, which will be released in the coming weeks.
Finally, after delivering the letter
Ben Gray said “It was wonderful to be able to help promote Nigeria in this way,
and Anthony and his team couldn’t have been more welcoming to us because they
know how we have helped represent Nigerian boxing.
Now that the Ooni of Ife and the
Alaafin of Oyo have led the way I hope that Nigerians everywhere will recognise
the huge asset that Anthony and other Nigerian boxers are to their country.
This is particularly valuable to the country in helping create positive news
stories about Nigeria on the international stage, and as a result, I hope we
will see proper support of your incredible, world class talent”.
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