With celebrity fights reportedly paying up to N50m in Nigeria—far more than most professional boxers earn—the growing spectacle has sparked debate over fair pay and its impact on the sport, even as promoters argue it is attracting new audiences and investment. PETER AKINBO writes
Traditionally, boxing cards are structured so that the biggest and most lucrative bouts headline the event, with the main attraction taking place last. The December 11 showdown between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, for instance, is expected to close its card, with the two heavyweights commanding the biggest paydays. In Nigeria, however, celebrity boxing’s growing popularity is challenging this convention, as fights featuring entertainers increasingly compete with professional bouts for top billing and financial rewards.
At the October 1 edition of Chaos in the Ring, held at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, Ghanaian boxer Seth “Freezy Macbones” Gyimah defeated Nigeria’s Godday “Zodsolo” Appah to capture the WBO African Light Heavyweight Continental title. However, it was the celebrity showdowns, rather than the professional contest, that generated the loudest buzz of the night.
Skit maker Carter Efe claimed victory over rapper Speed Darlington, while Big Brother Naija winner Phyna stopped actress Nkechi Blessing by knockout. Phyna’s victory came with a reported N50m reward from Worldstreet, a trading and entertainment platform, further highlighting the financial appeal of celebrity boxing.
The figure is not new.
On May 1, Efe beat singer Habeeb ‘Portable’ Badmus by unanimous decision at Chaos in the Ring 4, and earned a N50m reward backed by businessman Emeka ‘E-Money’ Okonkwo.
Portable later said he was paid N50m for lasting one round, with N100m promised had he gone two. He then lost by disqualification to Nollywood actor Charles Okocha in their rematch, “Unfinished Business”.
The craze has spread beyond the ring.
On Friday, October 2, Afrobeats singer Teni posted a video calling out fellow singer Tiwa Savage to a fight for a N1.5bn purse. Tiwa replied in the comments with three words: “Pick a date.” No promoter, contract or date has been announced, but the exchange showed how far the idea has travelled.
Professional boxers’ grievance
For professionals who have spent years in the ring, the gap is hard to ignore. Former Universal Boxing Organisation champion Rasheed Idowu, named the body’s Boxer of the Month for April 2024, spoke in Yoruba, as translated by our correspondent.
“No boxer won’t be bothered, especially with the amount many of these celebrities are making,” Idowu said.
“How will celebrities be making so much more than we professional boxers who beat ourselves up for real? All our promoters don’t seem to value us professional boxers. They value celebrities more than us, and it’s not fair.”
He, however, admitted that boxers must also build their names in the age of social media.
“The one thing I think is that we have to grow our pages and fame,” he told The PUNCH.
“Nowadays, it is social media that has taken over everything. If they see you are doing well on social media, they will pay you at that level as well. So, we have to make a name to get better pay.”
Bolatito “Black Tito” Oluwole, a Nigerian professional boxer and national champion in the cruiserweight and light-heavyweight divisions, took a similar view.
“According to my own knowledge, the promoters need to treat it as a business, so if they are to bring in celebrities, then the fans are coming to watch them, not the pro boxers,” she told our correspondent.
“Unless that pro boxer has popularity like the celebrity boxers, like Taiwo Esepo, and that’s the situation now. The celebrities offer more than just fighting, like promotion and bringing a sophisticated crowd, and I think this is fine and normal.”
She added that boxers must market themselves, saying, “Boxers must sell themselves so people will know them and they can make money like that too. Because if you are fighting at my event and you can’t sell tickets, then what’s the point?”
Idris Gbadamosi, who fought in the WBC Grand Prix, did not see celebrity boxing as a threat.
“To me, I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” he said. “The reality is that the celebrities have their own platform and they pull crowds. But for us professional boxers, we also have to make our name and build brands to the level that we can also pull these crowds.”
Promoter’s defence
Founder of Chaos in the Ring and Chief Executive Officer of Balmoral Group Promotions, Dr Ezekiel Adamu, argues that celebrities are the engine that funds the professionals.
“We need the influencers because they give us the eyeballs,” Adamu said.
“And we need the professionals because the professionals keep them watching boxing.”
He pointed to Jake Paul, a former YouTuber turned boxer, as proof that the model works elsewhere, and said the pay of Nigerian fighters has risen since Balmoral entered the sport.
“At the time we started boxing, some of these boxers were earning N50,000 to fight, even after training for so long,” Adamu said.
“We’ve commercialised it. We’ve brought in the brands, we’ve brought in the eyeballs, and we’ve brought in the national interest.”
He has also claimed that Nigerian boxers now earn more than footballers in the domestic league. Adamu said staging a major card cost as much as $1m, and that Balmoral wants its fighters “paid the same amounts they would earn abroad”.
There is evidence of professionals benefiting.
In June, the promotion signed the undefeated WBA Africa lightweight champion, Taiwo “Esepo” Agbaje, who is 19-0, while Suleiman Jafaru’s knockout of former British champion Samuel Antwi has, according to Adamu, drawn calls from promoters abroad. Revenue is also layered, with tickets for the October 1 card priced between N25,000 and N150,000 for general and VIP seats and N500,000 for ringside, alongside sponsorship, streaming on DAZN and betting partnerships, according to African Celebrities Magazine.
The regulators’ response
Azania Omo-Agege, chairman of the Nigeria Boxing Federation’s pro-boxing committee, said the celebrity boom was bringing people back to the sport.
“First of all, boxing was in decline, but recently, with Balmoral’s celebrity boxing, it is attracting a lot of fans and audience, with crowds selling out venues again, and we are getting a lot of calls that people want to box,” Omo-Agege told The PUNCH.
“So gradually, we will get to where we want to get with pro boxers through celebrity boxers.”
He said professionals on the October 1 card were treated well.
“Even the pro boxers that fought at the October 1 card, the minimum payment they made was like N2m, N3m at those bouts,” he said.
“They were treated well, and they are not even big names yet. So we know that the more they get bigger, the higher the pay.”
Omo-Agege added that Nigerian champions abroad, such as Anthony Joshua, Efe Ajagba and Moses Itauma, should return home to fight to lift audiences further. In May, he vowed that the situation in which a celebrity bout pays more than professionals would change.
“If we get the right promoters involved and create the right structure, Nigerian boxers will no longer have to depend on celebrity fights to see big money in boxing,” he said. “Professional boxing itself should be profitable enough for them.”
The President of the Nigeria Boxing Board of Control, Dr Rafiu Oladipo, has likewise made raising the baseline purses of professionals a priority, so that legitimate athletes no longer “live in penury”.
The board’s Secretary General, Remi Aboderin, also defended celebrity boxing. He acknowledged that some professionals might not fully appreciate the situation on the ground, but said the board had no objection to the fights as long as medical checks and the necessary rules were observed.
“Our boxers may not be that understanding of the situation on the ground,” Aboderin told The PUNCH.
“But the NBBofC has nothing against celebrity boxing as long as it is done with all the health requirements and rules that are part of boxing.”
He explained that celebrity bouts did not follow the normal professional rules, being fought over three rounds of two minutes, and existed mainly to attract a quality crowd to ringside.
Aboderin said professionals had gained from the trend.
“Formerly, our boxers collected peanuts,” he said. “But right now, things are changing, and that is because of the innovation of these celebrity boxers that are in play. Right now, they are collecting dollars.
He called the development “a blessing in disguise”.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying celebrity boxing is the best,” Aboderin said.
“But right now, it is one of the best things that has happened to pro boxing in Nigeria because it has brought out interest in people coming to watch boxing.”
According to him, some people stayed away from boxing because they saw it as a violent sport, but the chance to watch their favourite celebrities trade punches in what he described as a comedic way was drawing them in.
He also criticised the conduct of some pro boxers and their supporters when disputes arise in the ring.
“The boxer loves to fight,” Aboderin said.
“Instead of understanding that he has another chance to come fight another day and make more money from his rematch, he incites his crowd. That is not good for boxing.”
Aboderin said the celebrity fights were presently bringing attention, sponsorship and a quality crowd to the ringside. By the time the trend faded, he said, boxers would appreciate that they did not need to attract fans who were only interested in causing chaos whenever they lost. They would also know that, win or lose, a rematch would sell more and earn them more money.
Harm or help?
Globally, the debate is not new. A 2022 analysis of the top 50 boxing purses of all time by Parimatch found that 88 per cent still came from professional bouts, although exhibition fights involving social media stars were growing. Pundits have long complained of the “bastardisation” of boxing.
In Nigeria, the answer may depend less on the celebrities than on what follows them. For now, the crowds are back, the sponsors are in, and a skit maker can earn N50m in three rounds. Whether that money eventually lifts the professionals on the undercard, or merely overshadows them, is the question Nigerian boxing is yet to settle.