Ghanaian boxer Patrick Allotey has bemoaned the effect of the six months suspension handed him by the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) for breaching the ethics of his profession after being found guilty of fighting outside the ring.
The former WBO African Welterweight Champion was suspended in February this year after he failed to hold his cool and leashed punches on Michael Siaw Agyemang, an Asante Kotoko fan who provoked him during a league match between Asante Kokoko and Accra Hearts of Oak at the Accra sports stadium.
The six months suspension by the GBA has had a huge negative impact on Patrick’s professional boxing career as lots of potential sponsors and his fans were left disappointed at the incident. The 29-year old has revealed that the suspension drove all lovers away from him including would-be sponsors, leaving him highly depressed to the point of considering calling it a quit on his profession.
“From the beginning it made all my activities disorganised”, Patrick begun, speaking to ghanasportspage.com. “Everything seemed scrapped off because, it became like a public figure who has been hit by such an incident and living without any advisor with you, and doing everything by yourself, I nearly gave up but as a man, sometimes you need to live by enduring certain pains”, he disclosed.
Narrating his ordeal, Patrick Allotey expressed worry over how he was deserted during the suspension period. According to him, though boxing is an individual sport, he fights using the nation’s flag and in national colours and as such, he expected some love from the nation during those difficult times.
“It’s true boxing is my profession but I don’t box for myself, I do box for my country Ghana, because if you look at my world title bout I went with Ghana flag, I’ve gone for many fights and in all of them whenever I go it’s the Ghana flag I use and with the national Anthem played along. I do boxing as my personal sport but I do it for the nation Ghana. So when the incident happened and people didn’t even want to see anything about me it really hurt me”, he lamented.
Patrick Allotey further to disclose, that people even raised curses on him on radio and TV in the country and that killed his spirit that more and pushed him to give up on boxing.
“How the criticisms went that people were even cursing me on radio and TV, I thought of quitting the profession. Even some of my fellow boxers said a lot of things even though I have never had any grudge with anybody before”, he mentioned.
The ban ended on August 6, 2020 and GBA President, Peter Zwennes confirmed in an earlier interview with ghanasportspage.com that “If the six months has elapsed then of course the ban is lifted. Once the six months is up, automatically the ban is lifted. What it means is that after today’s date he is at liberty to resume his professional career”.
The GBA has however not released any official statement on the matter after the expiration of the six months period.
