Portable rejects Charles Okocha’s rematch

On Tuesday night at Landmark Beach, Oniru, on Victoria Island, Lagos, Okocha was defeated by Portable in a Heritage Boxing Entertainment celebrity battle. The referee pronounced Portable the winner after four rounds of action.

Okocha claimed that their boxing match was manipulated, claiming that Portable removed his boxing gloves in the third round, which should have resulted in an immediate disqualification.

The two were feuding online over an alleged N40 million rip-off. Portable stated that Okocha defrauded him and only sent him a tiny amount of money.

This provoked a brawl, during which they agreed to settle their issues physically and both booked a boxing bout for Boxing Day, directly following Christmas, with HBE approving the title.

Following the fight, Okocha turned to Instagram to criticize the referee, claiming that Portable removed his boxing gloves during the third round, which should have led to an immediate disqualification.

“How can you give up in the third round when we have four rounds? How do you take off your gloves in the third round, leading to total disqualification when the fight hasn’t ended?

“Y’all know this was rigged, with an incompetent referee who knows nothing about boxing rules. Nevertheless, we move on. Rematch is coming soon,” he wrote.

In response, Portable published a series of videos on Friday aggressively denouncing Okocha’s requests, professing reluctance to fight him, and directing him to Anthony Joshua, the two-time world heavyweight champion.

“You want another beating? You that weigh more than I do, I beat you and collected money and a belt. In the first round, I beat you; in the second round, I beat you; in the third and fourth rounds, I beat you. Go and fight another person; if you want to fight, go and call Anothy Joshua; I am not dropping this belt,” Portable said.

Meanwhile, Azania Omo-Agege, interim head of the Nigerian Boxing Federation, reacted to the battle between the Nigerian superstars, praising the duo for promoting boxing in Nigeria.

He stated that the NBF will consider collaborating with them to make them ambassadors of the boxing profession in Nigeria.

“Let me say I am so happy to see two Nigerian superstars take to the boxing ring in a celebrated boxing fight. I am very happy with the exposure they have given to boxing through that singular act.

“NBF will look for a way we can enter into discussion with them to explore the opportunity of making them ambassadors of boxing in Nigeria. We believe that their identification with boxing has a very great potential to pull many Nigerian youths out of the streets to join the boxing trade,” he said