Daily Times

NIAMEY: From the ringside, Niger’s ex-heavyweight boxing champion Abdoul Aziz Ousseini, aka “Aziz”, gives guidance to his young trainees at the boxing club in the capital Niamey. Some 10 youths drawn from the city streets pull on their gloves and warm up. Close by, other amateur pugilists hammer a huge tyre suspended with rope. Almost 50 years old and impressively weighing in at more than 100 kilos (220 pounds), the ten times heavyweight champion of Niger has turned to coaching future talent and giving purpose to disadvantaged youngsters. The man who “discovered” boxing in 1998, when it was embryonic in the poor Sahel country, took US superstar Mike Tyson for his role model and today coaches youngsters on a voluntary basis.

“These are children who are neglected and who were using drugs from left to right, so on Saturdays and Sundays, I sacrifice my time for them,” says Aziz, who wears a tracksuit in the national colours. “The coach teaches us boxing (…) It is better to learn to box than to take up banditry in the street. Later we will teach others,” smiles Moussa Issa, a committed trainee. “A champion will emerge from the group,” Aziz predicts with conviction. In 2012, he already piloted a government programme supported by the United States and Spain, which benefitted about 40 such young people from two working-class neighbourhoods of Niamey. While the former champion can count on a few local sponsors, he also provides private boxing lessons for Western expatriates to support his activities. “Instead of giving me money, I sometimes ask them to bring me high-quality boxing equipment from their vacations in Europe,” says Aziz, who works in a United Nations agency in Niamey. The first professional boxer to hail from Niger, where traditional wrestling is the main combat sport, Aziz has known a degree of international success.