Adijat Gbadamosi, an award-winning Nigerian female boxer and Olympic medalist, has been crowned Boxing Union super-bantamweight champion, making her the reigning African champion and the first Nigerian female boxer to do so.
Adijat Gbadamosi won the long-standing vacant belt by defeating Zimbabwean boxer Patience Mastara in the fifth round of the 10-round match at the Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra, Ghana.
Patience Mastara, her opponent, was carried out the boxing ring on a stretcher after taking a hammering from Gbadamosi at the ‘King of the Ring 3’ stadium.
The 21-year-old hyperactive pugilist told Sunday PUNCH that she faced a hard challenge from her opponent earlier in the match, but she adjusted her tactics and became more aggressive after advise from her crew.
“I feel okay now because I am happy with the result, but the fight was hard for me because my opponent was very tough to read,” she said.
“In the first and second rounds when I got back to my corner, my coach told me to change the way I was fighting her if I wanted to stop her and get the belt and I took to his advice. I changed the way I fought her from the third round, I put more energy into the fight and I was able to gain the knockout,” Gbadamosi told Sunday PUNCH.
The 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games Silver medalist and two-time Africa Youth Champion now has an unbeaten record of eight victories and five KOs.
Adijat Gbadamosi feels elated about the recent achievement in her boxing career. “I feel great and happy that I have now become the new super-bantamweight champion and the first Nigeria female boxer to get the title. I did not have any doubts that I could defeat her and I proved it with the knockout,” she said.
She follows in the step of another Nigerian female boxer, Police Constable Juliet Ukah, who was recently crowned the new EFC (Extreme Fighting Championship) Champion in Africa.
