Meet 6 Famous British Boxers That Are Originally From Nigeria (Photos)

- September 08, 2021

1. David Bankole Adeleye

David Bankole Adeleye is a 24-year-old British professional boxer.

Although he was born on 16 November 1996 in London, England, David Adeleye is originally from the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria.

Adeleye's professional boxing career kicked off at the Dale Youth Club at the age of 14 under the tutelage of Gary McGuiness. Three years ago, he represented England in an international against Denmark and secured gold at the British Universities and Colleges Sport Boxing Championships.

Two years ago, it was reported that Adeleye had turned professional under the Queensberry Promotions banner of Frank Warren. In the same year, he made his first professional boxing appearance on the undercard of Daniel Dubois against Kyotaro Fujimoto for the vacant WBC Silver heavyweight title at the Copper Box Arena in London. The referee, Mark Bates, called a halt to proceedings as Adeleye won Lithunaian fighter Dmitrij Kalinovskij through technical knockout in the first round of the fight. Adeleye returned with a second-round knockout over Matt Gordon at the BT Sport Studio in London last year.

2. Michele Aboro

Michele Aboro is a 54-year-old retired British professional boxer of Nige who competed from 1995 to 2001.

Twenty six years ago, she started her career as a professional boxer with a first round knockout win over Marleen Lambert in Belgium. Her first four professional boxing fights took place in different European countries and they were all first-round knockout defeats for Aboro.

Twenty three years ago, Aboro fought Brigitte Pastor for the vacant WIBF European Super Bantamweight title, knocking out Pastor in five rounds to claim her first professional belt. Twenty one years ago, Aboro made history by becoming a world champion when she fought Eva Jones, knocking Jones out in round ten to become the WIBF's world Super Bantamweight champion.

Her retirement came in 2001 after she defeated Nadia Debras by a ten-round decision to retain her world title for the third time.

Born on 17 July 1967 in London, England, Aboro's father is from Nigeria and her mother from England.

3. Henry Akinwande

Henry Adetokunboh Akinwande is a retired British professional boxer of Nigerian descent who competed from 1989 to 2008.

Thirty two years ago, Akinwande made his first professional appearance against Carlton Headley in London and won all of his first 18 fights.

After defeating a famous professional boxer from New Zealand, James Thunder, for the Commonwealth title in 1993, Akinwande again won another fight for the vacant European belt. This time three judges were assigned and Akinwande won a joint decision after 12 rounds.

His last fight in the world of wrestling was against Ondřej Pála from the Czech Republic in 2008.

4. Adrian Carl Thompson

Adrian Carl Thompson is a British former professional boxer of Nigerian descent who competed from 1988 to 2005.

Branded The Cat, Thompson became a professional boxer thirty three years ago. Twenty nine years ago, he debuted as a professional wrestler by claiming the vacant British cruiserweight title after defeating Steve Lewsam in eight rounds.

He held multiple championships at cruiserweight, including the WBO title between 1997 and 1999, and the IBO title twice between 2001 and 2005 respectively.

Thompson retired in 2005 at the age of 41 after his last winning fight against Frederic Serrat.

5. Lawrence Okolie

Lawrence Okolie is a professional British boxer and rapper.

Four years ago, Okolie made known his decision to turn professional, signing with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Sport to compete in the cruiserweight division.

He had his debut professional bout against Geoffrey Cave at the Manchester Arena in Manchester four years ago. The fight lasted 20 seconds and ended after Okolie landed two right hooks to the head of Cave. The referee stopped the fight instantly.

He won another fight against his opponent, Głowacki, through a sixth-round knockout on March this year.

Okolie is currently scheduled to claim his first WBO cruiserweight title against Dilan Prašović on the 25 of this month.

Although Lawrence Okolie was born on 16 December 1992 in Hackney, London England, he is originally from the Igbo tribe of Nigeria.

6. Anthony Joshua

Anthony Joshua is a 31-year-old British professional boxer.

Joshua started his professional boxing career fourteen years at Finchley ABC in Barnet, London, England. Soon after, he won the Haringey Box Cup in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

Joshua currently represents Great Britain as a boxer and has won several medals and awards. He won a silver medal in the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan. He maintained his position at the 2012 Olympics games. He went in as a novice and came out as the 2012 Olympic Champion after defeating Roberto Cammarelle of Italy.

Eight years ago, Joshua turned out to be a professional boxer under the Matchroom Sport promotional banner, and made his first professional boxing appearance the same year. Between October 2013 to November 2013, Joshua won three fights by knockouts.

Joshua made history by becoming the second British boxer in history to win both a gold medal at the Olympics and a world title by a major professional sanctioning body. Also, he is the first British heavyweight to reach this height.

As a professional boxer, Anthony has fought 24 times, and lost just once. He won 21 times by knockouts, 2 by decision, and lost once to Andy Ruiz Jnr two years ago.