Meet 151-fight journeyman and 'professional loser' Van Poetschīy contrast, Kejawa began his journey with greater enthusiasm.

It had just one heavy bag, for example, which was filled with sand.'įrom that starting point, Oshoba went on to have around 60 amateur fights, winning all but three, culminating in her Commonwealth medal. 'There were other female boxers there, which encouraged me, and I improved quickly,' she says. Fear was rapidly replaced with excitement. In the end, Oshoba caved in, went to the local gym, and fell in love with the sport despite her initial misgivings. I was scared about getting hit in the face.' 'I didn't know much about boxing and didn't even know girls could do it. 'When I was around 12, my brother had the idea for me to box, but I wasn't keen,' she remembers. She admits she was reluctant at first to try boxing. Interested in many sports but especially football and table tennis, Oshoba grew up as a villager in a rural area. 'But the training facilities and the potential to develop are so much better.' From punching sandbags to Commonwealth silver

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'The weather is a big issue and of course the food,' Kejawa laughs. The shift from living and training in Nigeria, to the Gloucestershire-Somerset border has involved a lot of adjustment. That's not to say their move has been straightforward. It's impossible to find sponsorship, but in the UK, things are different,' he says. 'In Africa it is very hard to build a career as a boxer.

A former two-time Nigerian amateur champion, Kejawa shares Oshoba's outlook. She is joined in this venture by Oluwatosin Kejawa, a 21-year-old super middleweight from Lagos. What makes Oshoba's case so unusual is that she chose to do that not in her home country, but in western England, supported by promotional company Neilson Boxing. Originally from Ogun State in Western Nigeria, she won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth games in Birmingham where she lost in the final to Ireland's Michaela Walsh, then made the decision to turn professional.

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