Former WBO Interim Light-heavyweight champion Joshua Buatsi has issued a call for a comprehensive overhaul of Ghana’s boxing ecosystem, insisting that only sustained, large-scale investment in the amateur ranks could restore the nation’s fading global influence and produce its next generation of world champions.
In an interview with the Graphic Sports during a recent visit to Ghana, the 32-year-old Briton of Ghanaian heritage (the boxer proudly traces his roots to the Volta Region) contrasted the well-funded, structured amateur pathway that shaped his rise in the United Kingdom with the chronically under-resourced system that continued to hold back Ghana’s vast reservoir of talent.
“As a British amateur, we travelled the world — Cuba, Russia, the United States, Kazakhstan — absorbing different styles, sparring with the best and hosting top nations in return,” Buatsi recalled. “That exposure wasn’t a luxury; it was the foundation. Ghana must replicate that pipeline if we want world champions wearing the Black Star,” he said.
Nation rich in talent, starved of tools
Buatsi’s candid assessment echoes long-standing concerns from coaches and former professionals who argue that Ghana’s naturally gifted fighters are being failed by inadequate infrastructure.
A Daily Graphic investigation can reveal that a recent survey of 47 amateur gyms across Greater Accra, Ashanti and Central regions found only three with regulation-size rings, while none had functional heavy bags under five years old.
Basic equipment, such as speed bags, timing clocks, and double-end bags, is virtually absent outside the Bukom Boxing Arena.
“Every weekend in Bukom, Jamestown or Chorkor, you see kids with lightning hands and iron chins,” veteran trainer Lawrence Carl Davies, who mentored former WBO Africa champion Emmanuel ‘Game Boy’ Tagoe, said.
“But by age 16 they’re punching shadows because the gloves are torn, the wraps are shared among 20 fighters, and the nearest proper ring is quite a distance away.”
The consequences are visible. Ghana has not produced an undisputed world champion since Azumah Nelson vacated the WBC featherweight title in 1994. Since 2015, only Isaac Dogboe and Joseph Agbeko have held versions of world titles — both shaped primarily by training opportunities abroad.
Meanwhile, Nigeria has crowned three world champions over the same period, buoyed by a corporate-financed amateur system.
Buatsi’s blueprint
With a professional record of one defeat in 21 fights, Buatsi outlined a three-tier investment plan, comprising a national amateur circuit, facility overhaul and corporate talent pipeline, an approach he believes could revolutionise Ghanaian boxing.
He called for a government-backed league featuring quarterly inter-regional tournaments, with fully funded travel and per diems for 200 selected boxers aged 14–19; the construction of 10 regional boxing hubs equipped with Olympic-standard rings, video analysis suites and physiotherapy units and tax incentives for companies that adopt amateur clubs, modelled on Nigeria’s ‘Adopt-a-Boxer’ scheme.
“Ghana doesn’t lack the raw material; we lack the kiln,” he said. “Invest GH¢50 million over five years and you’ll see returns in medals, tourism and youth employment. Boxing can be a GH¢500 million industry for this country,” he said.
Buatsi also opened up about his lone professional defeat, a unanimous points loss to Callum Smith in June 2024, describing it as “a PhD in humility.”
He returned two weeks ago with a devastating third-round stoppage of previously unbeaten German contender Leon Bunn in London, propelling himself back into the WBO’s top five.
“I want that full world title for Ghana because 2026 is my year,” he vowed. But I also want the kids in Nima and Bukom to know that when I raise that belt, it will be because someone finally listened.”
info@businessghana.com
