YUCATECO Boxing League Season 2 trials light up Lagos
Following the successes recorded in the Season 1 of the annual YUCATECO Boxing League, organisers of the first of it’s kind boxing championship in the country Friday, May, 24, 2024, organised trials for pugilists that will participate in the season 2 of the money spinning League
The well attended trials held at the Brai Ayonote Boxing Gym of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos attracted both male and female boxers from all the states in the South West geopolitical zone of the country with the boxers sweeting it out in six Olympics weight categories namely; 57 kg, 63 kg, 67 kg, 71kg, 75 kg and 86 kg.
Giving reasons for the trials, the Chief Executive Officer of YUCATECO Boxing League Omonlei Yakubu, said it was organised to enable more boxer clubs and their fighters to be part of the biggest amateur boxing tournament in the country.
According to him, when the maiden edition was held, only few clubs participated but it became necessary that many talented boxers should also be given the opportunity to exhibit their talents especially now that our website has been overwhelmed by boxers from different parts of the country indicating interest to be part of the league which prize money for the best overall club has been increased from N20- N50 million.
He also explained that as a gender friendly organisation, they decided to include female boxers in the tournament in order to give the girl child opportunity to not only exhibit their talents but excel in the game.
Omonlei while expressing happiness with the quality of fights at the trials, said that although he has not made a dime from the league, but his passion for the game and desire to create avenue for the development of grassroots in the country was behind his decision to come up with the league.
” To be sincere with you, I’ve not made a dime from the tournament but am not discouraged because my target is not all about making profit or recouping my investment but to give fighters at the grassroots hope and opportunity to excel in the pugilist game and am happy that we’re getting there”, he explained.
On the relationship between his promotional outfit and the Ministry of Sports Development, he described it as very cordial which prompted him to organise the trials at the National Stadium boxing gym.
He promised that at the end of the trials, there will be a lot of fire works and entertaining boxing fights when the Season 2 eventually kick off later in the year in selected zones.
Technical Director of the league, Laguda Babatunde, explained that the trials was done in the spirit of fair play and that they decided to concentrate only on Olympic weight categories in order to produce boxers that will in future represent the country at the Olympics.
” As you can see, what we did was to limit the weight categories to Olympic standards because we want to ensure that these fighters get adequate exposure and form the bulk of boxers that will in future represent Nigeria at the biggest sporting event in the world”, he noted.
Laguda further stated that the trials will be extended to the South /East and South/ South geopolitical zones of the country where some boxers have already registered to be part of the league before the final trials that will culminate in the selection of boxers that will participate in the Season 2 of the money spinning League.
It would be recalled that apart from the best overall boxing club going home with a whopping sum of N20 million in the Season 1 of the tournament, the best overall boxer of the Series also smiled home with a brand new car courtesy of YUCATECO Boxing League.
The Season 2 of the championship will also see individuals smile to the banks as top ranked boxers in each weight category will receive N 2 million the second ranked boxers will get N1 million while the third ranked boxers in each weight category will pocket the sum of N 500,000 at the end of the season”.
Twelve (12) clubs will participate in Season 2 of the Yucateco boxing league and the bouts will run for 17 weeks.
