States In Nigeria To Bid For Bash Ali’s Guinness World Record Fight

OLADAPO OLUWABUNMI OLANIKE

Bash Ali (2nd right) with crew of BEN TV in Abuja recently.

There are strong indications that any state that will host the forthcoming Guinness Book of World Record Championship involving Nigerian Bashiru Lawrence Ali, OON, will have to bid for the boxing tournament.

This information is coming from the Local Organising Committee (LOC)) which has been given the mandate of getting a befitting venue where the epic event will be staged.

Ali popularly called Bash Ali by his fans, will be fighting an American boxer where victory will make him the oldest man on earth to win a world boxing title. With this, he will be rewritten boxing history as a black man to have achieved this feat while his name will be written in the Guinness Book of World Record. He will be stepping on the ring at 63 years of age.

While inaugurating the LOC in Abuja recently, the former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, who is the Chairman of the Committee, directed members of the LOC to, as a matter of urgency, begin search for a befitting venue in any state in Nigeria to host the historic fight.

A member of the Committee, who craved for anonymity because the matter has not been officially released to the public, told P.M. EXPRESS in Abuja that any state that will host the fight won’t get it on a platter of gold.

“The plan is to place a price tag of one million dollars for any state which want to host this fight. This will be small to a lot of added gains for the state which will host this epic event.

“The benefits include but not limited to the state getting one of the sports academies which is coming to Nigeria after the fight and building each of the academies will cost $80 millions. Apart from this, the multiplier effects of hosting a world title fight in that state cannot be quantifiable, as it will not only boost the economic of that state, boost and expose the tourism potentials of the state to the world, but also it will place the state in world map of sports.

“So if a state hosting the fight has to pay $1m, it stands to get more that what it pays in return. This event us a big business for any state Governor who has the wisdom to think very well. We have not talk of the Pay Per View telecast that will bring the world to focus on the country and most importantly the state which is hosting the bout. There are other gains which I cannot disclose to you and I think the LOC will unveil all this to the public very soon.”

P.M.EXPRESS reports that other terms of reference of the LOC include to galvanize resources of support and funding through marketing and promotion to meet the immediate demands of the Approving Boxing Union, logistics and events management; to immediately re-invite to Nigeria, the President of the World Boxing Federation, the President of International Boxing Union and the Pay Per View television operators for business discussion and to undertake the packaging of the historic fight in an efficient, effective, transparent and accountable manner.