Hogan

The history of Nigerian boxing cannot be complete without a mention of Hogan 'Kid' Bassey who shot Nigeria into international spotlight by winning a world boxing title in 1957.

Though Bassey Okon Asuquo, popularly known as "Hogan Kid" Bassey, is no more, he is still well celebrated in Nigeria today as a boxing legend, a worthy sports ambassador, a patriot, and a devout Christian noted for startling disciplinary record.

The famous boxer gave up the ghost in January 1998 after a failed battle to surmount a heart ailment which defied medication.

A cursory glance through his boxing profile indicates that Hogan Bassey was the country's first boxing icon who won a world boxing title in 1957. Aside his world title feat, it is also important to recall that he was the youngest boxer to win the national flyweight title way back in 1950 at the age of eighteen when he was still in the secondary school. For the Calabar-born pugilist who breathed his last at the age of 65, boxing brought him honour, fame and glory.

Before he plunged into boxing, he never knew what the future held. He started out with street soccer as was the case with many of his peers in those days. "I played a lot of soccer in school and at home even though we used improvised balls most of the time. I love sports and was a kind of an all-rounder", Hogan recalled in a book titled: "the Nigerian Stars of Sports" written by a frontline sports commentator, Sebastine Ofurum.

Before coming to Lagos in search of greener pastures, Hogan, born to Chief and Mrs. Okon Bassey Asuquo in 1932, started his elementary school education at Creek Town School, Calabar from where he left for Ahmaddiya now Breadfruit Primary School, Olowogbowo, in the heart of central Lagos.

He was still in school when he started making his marks in boxing as an amateur in 1947.

Reminiscenting on his early breakthrough in the pugilistic sport, Hogan explained that if not for his strong will and love for the sport, he would have quit due to the indisposition of his parents who wanted him to concentrate more on his education. But the young Asuquo hung on in the face of his parents' objection. In no time, his boxing prowess became glaring and later on, his parents left him alone as they felt he was mature enough to chose his own vocation in life.

By 1949, Hogan Bassey joined the professional rank after distinguishing himself in the amateur cadre. His first fight was against Jack Salami who, after absorbing Hogan's solid punches got floored by a ferocious punch in the head. Shortly before passing out of school in 1950, he won the national flyweight title at the expense of Dick Jurein.

After winning the flyweight title, Hogan worked briefly with the Ordinance Depot in Lagos as a store keeper under a Briton called Sergeant Pearson. His boss, Hogan Bassey narrated, wanted to send him to United Kingdom to polish his boxing skills, but the idea of traveling abroad did not really appeal to him. He had resolved not to travel abroad because of the cold climate in Europe.

But much later, he changed his mind in 1951 when another Briton named Jack Fransworth paid his fare to Britain. London turned a bed of roses for the little Nigerian as he had little problem passing the British Boxing Board of Control which issued him a British boxing license to enabled him fight in the United Kingdom. With the enormous challenge of professional boxing, Hogan employed a new manager, Peter Bansusco to polish him ahead of his first professional fight in Britain. Before then, the stocky boxer had graduated from the flyweight to the bantamweight class. He later moved up to the featherweight class where he won the world title in 1957 by defeating Algerian-born Sherif Hamia who fought as a French citizen. The fight which took place in Paris saw Hamia badly bruised as the Nigerian boxer courted victory with deadly blows.

Hogan successfully defended the title twice before losing it to Davey Moore through a deep cut in the right eye which he sustained in the seventh round of the world title fight. That fight turned out to be Hogan's last fight as he quit the boxing ring at the age of 27.

But before then, he had become a Member of the British Empire (MBE) when he was knighted by the Queen of England, Elizabeth II on January 1, 1958. He was also honoured with the Lion of Africa award in Senegal. Six years later, in appreciation of the honour he brought to Nigeria, the then Head of State, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo bestowed the great lion of Africa with the Member of the Order of Niger (MON) award in 1979.

On his retirement, Hogan became a boxing coach and a successful one at that.

It is to his credit that some of Nigerian boxers were nurtured from obscurity to limelight, the likes of Nojeem Maiyegun who won the first Olympic medal for Nigeria in 1964, Isaac Ikhuoria, bronze medalist at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Joe Mensah, Obisia Nwankpa and Davidson Andeh all passed through his tutelage at one time or the other.

Hogan Bassey also helped late Dick Tiger Ihetu who won a world title for the country in the middleweight and light heavyweight categories respectively.

According to him, the late Dick Tiger had it rough when he got to Britain in the fifties. "He lost his first four fights and he risked having his licence revoked.

I sympathized with him and got him a new manager and ensured that he was well acclimatized to the freezing British weather which enabled him to win his fifth fight and that gave him the impetus to continue as a boxer," revealed Hogan in the book "Nigerian Stars of Sports."

During his lifetime, Bassey was noted for his blunt position on contemporary sporting issues. Asked at one time what was responsible for the dwindling fortune of boxing in the country, Bassey averred that the right set of people were not given the opportunity to administer boxing. He added that square pegs were put in round holes. With such situation, he remarked that the game will continue to plummet. "Government should take a cue from developed countries like America where people with the right qualification, knowledge and technical expertise administer sports," he said.

Another cog in the wheel of progress, he intoned is the fact that politics has been mingled with sports administration. He bemoaned a situation whereby merit had been sacrificed on the altar of tribalism and ethnicism. As a matter of fact, Bassey wanted the country's selection process to incorporate merit if Nigeria really wanted to excel in sports. In death, Hogan Bassey's memory still lingers on because of his remarkable contributions to sports development in the country. His first daughter, Pauline Hogan Bassey stated: "Hogan was more than a fighter, he was a wonderful companion to all who knew him."

Former scribe of the Nigeria Amateur Boxing Association (NABA), Olusola Luke described him as a humble and humane person. "When he gives you his words, you can take him for it. We really missed him because his type are rare to find," Hogan "Kid" Bassey was revered by friends and foes alike.

He had made his marks before passing on. And even though today, Hogan Bassey is gone, his legacy will forever stand the test of time.

Demeyin is a Lagos based writer.