Inside Bukom, the Ghanaian neighborhood that produces boxing greats

CNN
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“When you are in Jamestown,” says Abdul Wahid Omar, “you know you have to be a hard guy.”

A poor neighborhood and children with boundless energy but few positive ways to channel it. Then along comes boxing, cracking open a door to a less perilous future – even sporting glory, with enough hard work. It’s a tale as old as time, repeated from Havana to Manilla to Philadelphia.

Nevertheless, few places live up to the narrative quite like Bukom, Jamestown. Part of a coastal district of the Ghanaian capital Accra, Bukom is a boxing mecca and finishing school for pugilists like 29-year-old Omar. A six-time national champion, he represented Ghana at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and is captain of the national team in the lead up to this year’s Paris Games.

Omar follows a path trod by boxers including Azumah “The Professor” Nelson, a featherweight and super-featherweight world champion in the 1980s-90s, widely considered the best African boxer of all time, and DK Poison (real name, David Kotei), Ghana’s first world champion in the 1970s. They, like he, honed their craft in Bukom, which has produced a remarkable eight world champions from its modest network of gyms.

– Source:
CNN
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The Ghanaian community with boxing at its heart

“We like to fight,” says local boxing legend, trainer Charles Quartey. “The whole thing is in our genes.”

Ghana hosted the African Games in March, with a lively boxing program based out of Bukom. Ahead of the tournament, CNN visited to interview veterans of this school of hard knocks, along with rising talent.

Bukom is a neighborhood where gyms spill out onto the streets; where…