In an interview on the national Premier television station GTV Sports Plus channel, Mr. Joseph Awinongya Snr, the father of the seven times young American national champion with the Ghanaian decent Joseph Awinongya Jnr expressed his commitment in working with Hakeem Lokko.
He made the pronouncement on the program dubbed “sports file” which celebrates young Ghanaian sports personalities who are excelling in their chosen sporting discipline and to discuss future plans with them. The host invited Hakeen Lokko and Prince Larbie and their fathers Carl Lokko and Daniel Larbie respectively to the program to assist in the discussion. These two boxers are arguably amongst the best juvenile boxers Ghana have currently. They have become household names in Ghana and making waves on social media and traditional media as well.
Hakeem Lokko, a young versatile juvenile boxer trained by his dad Carl Lokko one of Ghana’s best coaches and doubles as the technical director of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) said “I’m happy to be invited here to talk about the sport I chose to do since age four (4)”. “I started following my dad to the gym when I was a kid and one day when we got to the gym I told my dad I want to become a boxer” Hakeem added.
“He asked me, are you sure you wanna be a boxer and I said yes since then I have not looked back, now [I’m thirteen (13)] even though he has been tough on me most of the time” Hakeem expressly said to the host with smiles whilst looking into his dad’s eyes.
Joseph Awinongya Snr who was also a panelist with his son via zoom added that he has followed the exploits of Hakeem Lokko and the relationship with his dad and believes that their story is just like that of his son and himself.
“I have been monitoring this young chap (Hakeem) who is just about the same age with my boy for some time now. His exploits endeared him to me and decided to take my admiration of him a little further.” Awinongya Snr expressed.
“….and so I have held discussions with Carl Lokko about bringing Hakeem and his team to Illinois, Chicago to train with my son whilst they exchange boxing lessons for a while. This was supposed to happen early this year but has been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic but we are still on it” Awinongya Snr added.
The future of Ghana boxing looks really bright regardless of the myriad of problems facing the sport. Boxinghana.com will be bringing you all the exclusives with the development of juvenile boxing especially that of Hakeem Lokko.