7 times he dropped out of school, 7 times he boxed his way back. The story of Hogan ‘Kid’ Bassey, Nigeria’s first world boxing champion
Seven times he dropped out of school, seven times he fought his way back into the classroom. Boxing legend Hogan ‘Kid’ Bassey, the first Nigerian to become a world boxing champion, is widely regarded as one of the greatest boxers and athletes in Africa’s history.
The New York Times columnist, Arthur Daley, described him as “a solidly built little guy, so wide of shoulder and so oaken-hewed in architecture that he seems more than 126 pounds, the class limit.”
Originally born Okon Bassey Asuquo in the village of Ufok Ubet in Calabar, Cross River State, in April 1932, he started his journey to becoming a boxing great while he was still at school and he dropped out of school repeatedly, not because he was boxing around, but because he could not fund his education.
While many young sportsmen leave school after discovering their talent, Bassey told the New York Times’s Arthur Daley in 1958 that he took to boxing to keep himself in school.
“I fight amateur, until I run out of amateur opponents,” Bassey said. “Then I fight professional so that I can get money to pay my way through school. Seven times I have to quit and seven times I fight my way back into School.”
In July 1949 he won the Nigerian Flyweight title after stopping English boxer Dick Turpin. He would later lose the title in November of the same year to Turpin. Two years later, by 1951, he was already shining in West Africa after first winning the Nigerian bantamweight title in August 1951 and West African bantamweight title a month later in September 1951.
Not satisfied with the local success, he sought greener pastures. In 1951, the teenage boxer left Lagos for England through a boat that took him to Liverpool. There, just as he had hoped, his talent received global recognition.
Just as many sport stars of African origin today weigh the economic cost and opportunities open to them and conclude that to earn big from their skills, leaving Africa for Europe and the U.S is the best option, many African sports men of Bassey’s generation and the generation after, who became globally recognised, also took their skills to Europe. The migration of young people from Africa to Europe in search of greener pastures has been a thing for over 50 years and it appears not to be on a decline.
According to data by the United Nations, since 2010, most years have seen a rising tide of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and the U.S. Survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2017 across six sub-Saharan countries revealed that many young people from the region would move to another country if the means and opportunity presented themselves. And in Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria, more than a third say they actually plan to migrate in the next five years in search of better economic opportunities. More than half (51%) of sub-Saharan African migrants living in the U.S. as of 2017 were born in just four countries: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya, according to migrant population data from the United Nations.
Bassey arrived Liverpool a few days before Christmas in December 1951 and a month after, in January 1952, he made his British debut, knocking out Ray Hillyard in the fourth-round. In his first year in England, Bassey made 19 appearances. He won 15 of the 19 bouts, lost three and drew one. He soon became the favourite of British fans.
In 1955, he became Commonwealth Featherweight Champion knocking out the Irishman Billy “Spider” Kelly. He defeated Percy Lewis in April 1957 to retain the title.
Two months after, in June 1957, in the presence of Nigerian political leaders like Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Matthew Mbu, the former Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Bassey made history after defeating boxing pundits’ favourite, Cherif Hamia, a French-Algerian, for the World featherweight title in Paris, France. According to the Independent UK, Bassey was on the floor in round two, but picked himself up and slammed away until the 10th when Hamia folded and was rescued by the referee.
Bassey’s victory in 1957 made him the first Nigerian to win a major boxing title. He, however, lost the title to American boxer Davey Moore in Los Angeles in March 1959. In August 1959, he lost a rematch after round 10. “Yes, I am beaten,” he said when George Biddles, his manager, called the referee to the corner. “I do not want to go on.” That year, he retired from professional boxing at age 27 and took on a coaching role.
Hogan “Kid” Bassey later became the National Boxing coach of Eastern Nigeria. In 1980 he accompanied the Nigerian team to the Moscow Olympics.
Before his death at his Apapa, Lagos home on January 26, 1998, his boxing career and accomplishments earned him local and international honours. According to the London Gazette, Bassey was knighted by the Queen of England, Elizabeth II on January 1, 1958, as Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), “for services to sport in Eastern Nigeria”. He was also honoured in Senegal with the ‘Lion of Africa’ award in 1973 and in 1979, the government of then Head of State, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, conferred on him one of Nigeria’s highest national honours: Member of the Order of the Niger (MON).
Reports say he was voted ‘Nigerian Sportsman of the Century’ in a poll conducted in 2000. His accomplishments influenced Richard ‘Dick Tiger’ Ihetu, another Nigerian boxing legend who followed in the footsteps of Bassey and left Nigeria for Liverpool in 1955 to promote his boxing at the global stage.
According to the account of Emmanuel Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gate in the Dictionary of African Biography, Bassey was survived by his wife and eight children. He was married twice – his first wife Maria was a native of Liverpool but of mixed ancestry (her father a Sierra Leonean and mother, British), while his second wife, Mary, was an Efik who remained with him until his death in 1998.
