Legendary Bash Ali Receives Edo State Icon Award

African Boxing Ambassador, Bashiru Lawrence Ali (OON), was on Thursday honoured in his home state, Edo, for living an exemplary life to bring honour to his people.

The aged boxer, who clocked 65 years last February 27, was honoured by the Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS) during a ceremony to commemorate the 30th anniversary and the unveiling of EBS Fact File Magazine. 

The boxer was conferred with the Edo State Icon Award.

The ceremony was held at the Oba Akenzua II Cultural Centre in Benin City. The award, which was the first edition, was attended by important dignitaries who included the former Governor of Edo State, Prof Osunbor and Barr Kenneth Imasuaghon, Chairman of Pacesetters Academy, Abuja among others.

The award was a moment of joy for Bash Ali who is currently holding the World Boxing Federation (WBC) cruiserweight title. He described the honour as a motivation for him to despite mounting setbacks and official manipulations in his fatherland, set his sight and mind on the greater glory of becoming the oldest man to step on a boxing ring and the oldest man to win a world boxing title in the proposed Guinness World Record Boxing Championship which is fast approaching.

The Guinness World Record Boxing Championship has been in the pipeline for a couple of years. This is a lifetime ambition that Bash Ali, a Nigerian and African boxer, wants to use to rewrite world boxing history and tell the world that indeed a good thing can come from the black continent.

The legendary boxer has always been a man of history. He was formerly a wrestler, who turned pugilist in the United States in September 1978. Bash Ali made history as the first cruiserweight boxing champion from the African continent.
He is a living boxer who did not fight in the amateur before turning professional, and the only boxer in the world to win every cruiserweight title conceivable as he has won the California title, United States Boxing Association title, North America Boxing Federation title, World Boxing International title twice and the current World Boxing Federation title which he won on September 9, 2000, when he knocked out the then champion, Terry Ray of the USA. He had victorious in the defence of the title against Tony Booth who he Knocked out in the fourth round.