Nollywood actor, Charles Okocha, has insisted that Nigerian musician, Portable, didn’t defeat him in their celebrity boxing match last December.
Portable beat Charles Okocha in the 5th round of the celebrity boxing bout, but the Nollywood star stressed that he wasn’t defeated, claiming that the musician was the first to give up on the bout.
Okocha went as far as describing the fight as a “manipulated” fight, adding that the musician who weighs far below him can’t defeat him in a well-organized boxing bout.
“It was manipulated for Portable to win”, Charles told Punch. “He didn’t fight the entire rounds as we should have, they also didn’t make adequate preparations for the fight and the organisers are not happy with the result of the event.
“First of all, the ring was not good, the whole ring was slippery, and they didn’t clean it well after previous bouts. That was why in the first round, when Portable rushed at me and tried to hit my head, I slipped and fell while trying to avoid him. But in the second round, I had the upper hand, and even until the third round, I still had the upper hand. It was after that he took off his boxing gloves and said he was not fighting anymore. You know how Portable is.
“So, I was expecting that he would be disqualified because why would you take off your gloves in the middle of a fight? That should be a disqualification, but then, even if they didn’t disqualify him for that, since it is an exhibition fight, I don’t think he should have been declared the winner. I think a draw would have been fairer if it wasn’t me winning. Somebody says he is not fighting, and yet he was announced the winner. I was very disappointed.”
Recall that on the eve of December 27, 2023, Okocha and Portable met in the ring at the Landmark beach in Lagos after the Nollywood star allegedly scammed the musician of 40 million naira.
Hence, the organizers of the boxing fight used the bout to help them settle their scores. However, Okocha insisted that he didn’t scam Portable and that the alleged scam was just to promote the bout.
When asked about the scam, Charles Okocha said: “That is not true at all, he is just talking as he always does. I did not scam him of any money, Portable just likes drama, this is just one of those things that people say before a fight to fuel controversy.
“We got an offer from the organizers due to the social media hype and we accepted, that was all. It was just business, we don’t have issues.”
Charles Okocha who claimed the organizers of the bout are unhappy with the outcome of the bout, said the organizers are working on staging a better-planned rematch and he is ready for it.
Discussion about this post