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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