Bukom Boxing Arena is the first

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

arena to be built in Ghana. The multipurpose facility was commissioned by

John Dramani Mahama John Dramani Mahama (; born 29 November 1958) is a Ghanaian politician who served as President of Ghana from 24 July 2012 to 7 January 2017. He previously served as Vice President of Ghana from January 2009 to July 2012, and took office as pres ...

in November 2016 and has a seating capacity of 4000. Other facilities in the open-air edifice include a sports hall,

Aerobic Aerobic means "requiring air," in which "air" usually means oxygen. Aerobic may also refer to * Aerobic exercise, prolonged exercise of moderate intensity * Aerobics, a form of aerobic exercise * Aerobic respiration, the aerobic process of cell ...

centre, Olympic size swimming pool and conference hall. The arena was constructed in Bukom due to the numerous world boxing champions the community has produced. Apart from boxing, the arena hosts basketball tournaments. The arena is adorned with the names of Ghanaian world boxing champions and otherwise famous Ghanaian boxers, such as

Azumah Nelson Azumah Nelson (born 19 July 1958) is a Ghanaian former professional boxer who competed from 1979 to 2008. He was a two-weight world champion, having held the WBC featherweight title from 1984 to 1987 and the WBC super-featherweight title twice ...

Ike Quartey Isufu "Ike" Quartey (born 27 November 1969) is a Ghanaian former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2006. He held the WBA welterweight title from 1994 to 1998, and challenged once for IBF junior-middleweight title in 2000. Early yea ...

, D.K. Poison and others.

Funding

The arena was funded by

Social Security and National Insurance Trust The Social Security and National Insurance Trust, is an agency of the government of Ghana. Its job description, according to itwebsite is to administrate the National Pension Scheme. In so doing, the trust owns major amounts of stock in Ghana's ...

(SSNIT) in partnership with a Polish company, ETC Group Polska in their joint venture company Trust Sports Emporium Limited.

Crime scene

In October 2018 the arena was declared a crime scene after fans reacted violently to referee Adorn Bertin's decision to end a bout between Isaac Sackey and Wasiru Mohammed. Bertin called a halt to the contest after defending

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...

Africa

super-bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . There were attempts by boxing promoters in the 1920s to establish this weight class, but few sanctioning organizations or ...

champion Sackey was knocked down by Mohammed in the third round. Although Sackey was able to return to his feet, Bertin waved off the fight, awarding Mohammed the WBO title via knockout.

External links

References

{{coord missing, Ghana Sport in Accra Sports venues in Ghana