Former WBC cruiserweight champion, Bashiru Ali, popularly known as Bash Ali, has maintained that he never demanded $50m from the Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh, to endorse his proposed Guinness World Record boxing bout, The PUNCH reports.
This comes after the altercation between Ali and Enoh, which commenced with Ali’s petition to President Bola Tinubu on April 24.
In a viral video online, Ali had alleged that Enoh demanded $1m from him before endorsing the bout.
In response, Enoh issued a statement on Sunday threatening legal action against Ali if he failed to retract his accusations and apologise within one week. The sports minister also accused Ali of demanding ‘upwards of $50m to stage his fight.’
Speaking exclusively to The PUNCH, Ali vehemently denied any discussion of monetary transactions with Enoh, emphasising that his focus had always been on organising the championship fight to promote Nigeria’s image globally.
“How can he ask me to apologise for telling the truth? John Enoh should say he is sorry to me, apologise to Nigerians, tender his resignation and move on,” Ali told The PUNCH.
“I never talked about money with John Enoh. My last offer was for €75m to fight in Germany or Saudi Arabia. I turned it down, that I was going to fight in Nigeria. I never told him that he should give me $50m for my fight.
“I had written in my open letter to President Tinubu that the ministry was not putting up a kobo, this is a private sector project that will bring money to Nigeria. I never asked him for one kobo for the show because it is supposed to be done by the private sector.”
Ali added that he had only gone to the sports ministry so they could “midwife the show and connect everyone involved as listed in the document I shared with him.”
The 68-year-old listed the Nigerian Boxing Board of Control among others as members of the Bash Ali Boxing Project Local Organising Committee.
Ali also shed light on his interactions with the ministry, indicating that despite assurances from Enoh, there was a lack of tangible progress in facilitating the fight.
“Later, he said he had sent my file to the Nigeria Boxing Federation and when I reached out to the NBF president Azania Omo-Agege, he denied receiving anything from the minister.
“He kept telling me to be patient, not to worry, that he’s going to put everything together and when I said I am not going to give him money, then he cut me off completely.”
Ali also shared screenshots of text messages with a contact saved as ‘Min Owan’, which he said was that of the minister. ‘Min Owan’, from the text messages, said they would refer the matter to the NBF but no message showed that the contact said they had referred it to the NBF.
“I told u I minuted yr letter earlier on. Yesterday (December 23, 2023) I got a feedback to refer the matter to the Boxing Federation, which I’ll do,” the message dated December 24, 2023, read.
Our correspondent reached out to Omo-Agege, who stated that he had never met the sports minister.
“I didn’t get any file from the minister on Bash and I have never met the minister Enoh.”
