Award-winning Nigerian female boxer and Olympic medalist, Adijat Gbadamosi, has been crowned with the Boxing Union super-bantamweight title; making her the reigning African champion and the first Nigerian female boxer ever to claim the title.
Adijat Gbadamosi defeated Zimbabwean boxer, Patience Mastara, in the fifth round of the 10-round bout at the Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra, Ghana, to clinch the long-standing vacant belt.
Her opponent, Patience Mastara, was moved off the boxing ring on a stretcher following the heavy pounding she received from Gbadamosi at the ‘King of the Ring 3’ arena.
The 21-year-old energetic pugilist told Sunday PUNCH that she faced a stiff challenge from her opponent earlier in the bout, but following advice from her crew, she changed her tactics and became more aggressive.
“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.