BoxRec

Down to fight Joshua Okine in Namibia this Sunday according to the schedule. Interesting fight if he hadn't announced his retirement. What's the story here?

steve689 wrote:Down to fight Joshua Okine in Namibia this Sunday according to the schedule. Interesting fight if he hadn't announced his retirement. What's the story here?

When did he announce his retirement? I thought he had gone back to Namibia because he was homesick.

Interesting fight... I wonder if Ali could fight the other big name African's in and around his weight - the likes of Jantuah, Clottey etc. I suppose both are now too much based in the states.

Be nice maybe if this Channel M could show some of Ali in action in Namibia.

I entered the fight on the sked, but there doesn't seem to be enough press right now for a fight that would be coming this soon. So now I'm going to delete it. I don't know if he will fight Okine, but he is also being called out by Tyson Uushona, who beat him in 2004. Apparently, he was discouraged by his management in the UK.

“After I got cut in the third round, my cornerman couldn’t stop the bleeding and the referee eventually stopped the fight in the ninth round. It could happen to anyone and I took it as a professional boxer, but I couldn’t understand why my manager could not get me a rematch. Maybe the promoters were trying to favour Watson because they did everything possible to avoid a rematch, and the fact that I am not British also did not help. If I was British I could challenge for the British or European title, but as a Namibian I don’t have those chances,” he said.

fairplay to him, if he couldnt get a rematch there isnt much point fighting in the UK

and it makes more business sense for his manager to get thompson a crack at the belt

Didn't Steve Wood refute Ali's claims in Boxing News though after Ali claimed he was being put on the backburner?

Steve,

It was not a reasonable request for me to promise a rematch straight away, as there is a mandatory challenger to be considered first . It is nearly 2 months since the fight and as far as I am aware ,even the winner Craig Watson does not know when and who he is boxing next.

If had told Ali that he was to get an immediate rematch then I would have lying. I said I would see what I could do and if not a straight rematch I would have kept him busy whilst things took shape and he would have challenged for it again.

It took patience , time and money to get Ali there and I am afraid that is what it would have took again - unfortunately due to various reasons the patience was not there this time.

Cheers,

STEVE WOOD

No problem, that sounds fair enough to me