Obituary - James Oyebola

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 27 Jul 2007, 10:41

Loftgroov wrote:
Terry D wrote:My girlfriend blames rap culture but cannot see the difference between my listening to MF DOOM or Ghostface and Fiddy F-ing Cent (which I would never listen to).

A lot of these wannabes seem to listen to that fooking awful UK casio calculator rap with some ingrate shouting a lot.
Unfortunately I'm not down enough with the kids to know what its called, but there is a style of music on one of the cable TV channels which just seems to be inner city London kids doing this sort of high-speed bleating at each other in a strange sort of pseudo-African American twang. Lots of gold jewellery and bizarre arm movements going on.

F**k me, it's absolutely awful, but must be a growing scene. Perhaps I'm just getting old (at 28), but you must be borderline demented to listen to it.

Where did all the decent young people go? They are being marginalised by loser scum, who in turn take over the cities, and hanging around pubs waiting to shoot people so it seems.

It's called Grime....and I'm 36....it's the new Drum N'Bass.

knockout · Post by **knockout** » 27 Jul 2007, 11:15

Great piece.

Ï met James many times on the boxing circuit, on the door outside Zoo Bar and just around town. He was such a big guy you could never miss him.
As everyone who knew him has already commented, he really was a gentle giant. Polite and friendly all the time.

Tragic that he should die in this way.

I hope he rests in peace.

The downside of being a big strong guy is that gutless scum have to pull a shooter as they know they stand no chance man to man.
A couple of years I lost another friend to a gun crime. Like James he was over 2 meters tall and a incredible strong man.

My thoughts are with James' family

DavidPayne · Post by **DavidPayne** » 27 Jul 2007, 11:16

Is it inappropriate to sell a t-shirt with Oyebola on it and forward the profit to the Safer London Foundation, a registered charity?

I'd appreciate opinion? I'll probably not sell any and therefore the profit will be inconsequential, but is it poor taste?

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 27 Jul 2007, 11:19

How about contacting the family and asking them? Not being sarky, but ask them if they would be interested, maybe someone like Frank Maloney could put you in touch, or maybe BC could source contact details for the family.

I can suggest an excellent website if you want to get them manufactured and sold on-line, and would be happy to help with the design side of it, presuming you cannot do it yourself?

I have little money, but will contribute a little time to do a nice simple design.

http://www.cafepress.com

It's simple to set up a store online, and then set up who the profits go to.

DavidPayne · Post by **DavidPayne** » 27 Jul 2007, 11:20

T-Shirt is designed and ready to go.

I've pm'd the link.

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 27 Jul 2007, 11:21

Ok, I'll set up a store, if someone could find the details of his family, then we're ready to go, I'll have the cheque made out and sent to them.

DavidPayne · Post by **DavidPayne** » 27 Jul 2007, 11:23

The store is also ready to go.

Been running for two months.

I just don't want a well-intended deed to whiff of shameless self-promotion.

Neri · Post by **Neri** » 27 Jul 2007, 11:51

I'd just like to add this article from the BBC website to the thread. Words from Frank Maloney and Scott Welsh

Oyebola was a 'first-class man'

Boxer James Oyebola, who was shot outside a south London club after asking three men to stop smoking, has been described as "a first-class family man and a wonderful role model".
His former manager, boxing promoter Frank Malone, was at his bedside at Charing Cross Hospital when Oyebola was pronounced dead at 1239BST.

He said: "James had to fight tooth and nail for everything he achieved in life and then he dedicated himself to encouraging young kids to do the same.

"This is one of the saddest times I have ever experienced. Boxing has lost a great ambassador and it is awful that a guy like James should have been the victim of such a cowardly attack."

Maloney promoted the boxer after he took the WBC international title in Atlantic City in 1994, beating Scott Welch. He later took the UK title off boxer Clifton Brown.

Oyebola took the boxing nickname Big, Bad.

But Maloney said: "You could never associate the 'bad' with James. I only ever saw him get angry once.

"I was in his corner for his fight against Mitchell. He was doing badly and when he came back to the corner I threatened to pull him out. He said, 'if you do that I'll knock you out instead'. He went out and stopped Mitchell in the next round."

After his fighting career ended in 1996, Oyebola turned to managing and trained Ajose Olusegun, who won the Commonwealth title in London in June.

Former opponent Welch said: "He only phoned me two weeks ago and told me how well the family was doing and about the prospects he was managing.

"We didn't like each other at the time but after we fought there was a great mutual respect and admiration. He might have been big and bad inside the ring but he was a great family man out of it."

He added: "To be killed like that by a bunch of cowards who would obviously never dare set foot in the boxing ring is disgusting and it makes me sick."

BBN · Post by **BBN** » 27 Jul 2007, 12:12

A Foundation in James' name is being set up according to a press release from Frank Maloney's office

boxingchat · Post by **boxingchat** » 27 Jul 2007, 12:25

emile wrote:Are we all sure that James would approve of his name being used for all sorts of draconian social policy suggestions and universal condemnations of youth culture?

I would think it would be more respectful in this thread to offer condolences, follow the developments towards the capture of the particular responsible parties and such.

Fair comment. But all the same it is the reason why this good man was slain. Perhaps if social conscience was higher all around this wouldn't happen.

Perhaps sadness and anger sometimes in instances such as this go hand in hand.

Horse · Post by **Horse** » 27 Jul 2007, 12:31

R.I.P.

Boxingmad · Post by **Boxingmad** » 27 Jul 2007, 12:48

Hopefully a benefit night will be put together at some stage and some funds can be raised. James was convinced that the way forward was to get the kids in the gym and off the streets. Maybe a foundation in his name perhaps?

RIP big fella. You'll be sorely missed.

Albert · Post by **Albert** » 27 Jul 2007, 13:59

Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:If you read this in most papers, it will be about how a former boxer was killed because he asked someone to stop smoking.

As I say in the piece, for those of us who knew of James Oyebola before he became a murder victim, a boxing related tribute here:

http://www.britishboxing.net/news_2549- ... ebola.html

What a bloody waste.

What is this world coming to? A terrible waste of life.

James my you rest in peace.

I hope they dangle the culprits by the bollocks.

chesh · Post by **chesh** » 27 Jul 2007, 15:08

RIP James.

Excellent piece, Ian.

Southpaw Stylist · Post by **Southpaw Stylist** » 28 Jul 2007, 03:34

RIP James.

Also I'd like to comment on James McDonnell...surely the most rational poster on this site by a mile. If only everyone approached situations with his attitude. Plus, he even knows what grime music is, you deserve respect for that in itself!

Hardhitters11 · Post by **Hardhitters11** » 30 Jul 2007, 07:28

RIP James, Best wishes to his family for the future.

A tragic event, But unfortunately it is a big part of today's youth culture.....This fact is sad as there are so many idiot's thinking they are badder than everyone else when in reality they are sad individuals who have had little in there lifes most of the time.

The worse thing is guns are so easy to get its unreal and even little idiots can get hold of converted guns at the least.

Again RIP James.

HH

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 30 Jul 2007, 08:19

Surely those are suicides Terrence?

chesh · Post by **chesh** » 30 Jul 2007, 08:23

Do you know where they were, Terry? I'm in the Manchester area.

chesh · Post by **chesh** » 30 Jul 2007, 09:51

Terry D wrote:
chesh wrote:Do you know where they were, Terry? I'm in the Manchester area.
Two in one night and one last week, Hulme and Chorlton-on-Medlock. Plus that young girl shot by her brother near Ryder Brow Park in Gorton, right near my old street Beckett Street last month.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 921815.stm

http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticN ... 1220070728

I live in Chorlton-on-Medlock and it is comprised of two estates sandwiching Brunswick street then backing onto the University and Hulme. It is right next to Ardwick.

Thanks, Terry. Bloody terrible, isn't it. By the way, my late Grandad used to live in Chorlton-on-Medlock (block of flats called Lockton Court), my Mum was born in Hulme and my Dad used to work in Gorton! I was born in Moss Side and now live in Gatley which is part Manchester/part Stockport.

Twinkle Toes · Post by **Twinkle Toes** » 31 Jul 2007, 08:32

jamesmcdonnell wrote:
I've never heard any evidence to suggest that the death penalty is any kind of deterrant in the USA, why should it be here?

Maybe because the death penalty is just that: A penalty - What has deterrant got to do with that?

Very flawed arguement James.

jamesmcdonnell · Post by **jamesmcdonnell** » 31 Jul 2007, 10:37

I don't think you are aware what the argument is frankly.

Just because something is a penalty, doesn't mean it is a deterrant. They are not mutually exclusive terms.

A 30 year jail term is a 'penalty' too, but it is also meant to serve as a deterrant to other people committing the same crime, and of people reoffending.

Why do you think people get so long for armed robbery? It's not that the sentence neccessarily fits the crime, after all, you can easily get longer for producing a gun and holding up a bank, than you will for battering someone to death....it's because if they didn't, then people wouldn't think so much about going and turning places over.

Murder, by contrast, tends to be a crime in which the perceived penalties seem to weigh little on the minds of those who commit them, it's usually a moment of madness for most convicted murderers, or they are high on drugs, or in this case, possibly as some sort of gang initiation.

My friend and I were talking about this crime last night, and he suggested that it may have been a gang initiation. Which I never thought of. He said that they probably went in there with the gun, and deliberately picked a fight by lighting up, knowing there was no smoking, and then shot the biggest guy there. Just a theory, but kind of makes sense.

Twinkle Toes · Post by **Twinkle Toes** » 03 Aug 2007, 08:04

Well yeah, fair enough, but primarily (and that is the key word) a penalty is a punishment - Certainly more a punishment than a deterrent.

I do believe there is an argument to say that these two words shouldn't walk hand in hand.

Even so, if we are taking sentencing time as a base of deterrent then I have to say the sentencing system requires looking into - For example it is plain to see that anything involving fraud appears more important than how you may treat a fellow human being - Whether that be bashing a granny over the head for 5 quid or beating the shit of someone waiting at a bus stop.

/shrug

oliverfennell · Post by **oliverfennell** » 03 Aug 2007, 09:02

Just read he was shot in the BACK of the head.

Not only were these guys too cowardly to fight him man-to-man, they waited until his back was turned before pulling their guns.

Yellow scum.

Hardhitters11 · Post by **Hardhitters11** » 03 Aug 2007, 11:28

I agree they are the safety in numbers with weapons type!....

They don't realise the type of people that are upset with them though, James was pretty well connected.....

Obituary - James Oyebola

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