They’re going to know my name now - Tosin Kejawa Feature
Oluwatosin Kejawa is a professional boxer from Lagos in Nigeria, who boasts an 11-0 record which includes five knockouts. In 2022, he moved to the UK where he now fights out of St Joseph’s Boxing Gym in Newport, which is known for producing top class fighters such as Welsh legend David ‘Bomber’ Pearce.
I visited St Joseph’s to sit down with Tosin, to discuss his career so far and his upcoming fight which will be his toughest challenge yet.
Image via Oluwatosin Kejawa Instagram
Early Life
Tosin described his inspiration to start boxing and where it all began “I started boxing when I was around seven/eight, I loved wrestling so much. All the money I got, my pocket money, I used it to buy wrestling CDs. That's what I would spend my money on, and wrestling is not a big thing in Nigeria, you know, no one except from you are watching on TV, wrestling is nothing, just like in America the WWE that’s it, it is nothing in Nigeria.”
“Then I was so lucky, there was a boxing coach. He moved down to my compound. I saw him training some few kids. I just be like, okay, I can do this. Instead of just wasting my time on wrestling, I just feel like, okay, let me try this. Then I fell in love with the sport.”
“At first my parents didn’t want to allow me, because I know I'm a very stubborn boy. The area I lived in is one of the bad areas in Lagos, so they didn’t want me to go into boxing, so I won't be in one of the bad gangs in the area. So I pleaded, I promised them, and I sent the coach to meet them and that I'm not going to be a bad boy, so they just gave me a try”.
Moving to the UK
While Tosin was boxing in Nigeria, fighting at the national events, he would promote his boxing online, posting videos on his social media platforms, such as his instagram.
In 2022, he was approached by a Bristol-based businessman Sean Murray, who was an aspiring boxing manager at the time. Sean had offered that Tosin, along with fellow promising Nigerian boxer Elizabeth Oshoba, would come over and live with him and train in the UK.
This was a big move for them at such a young age, with Tosin being 20-years-old at the time. He spoke about the transition to the UK and about receiving previous fake offers from other parts of the world such as America too:
“I met Sean online. At first I didn't believe it because I've met a lot of people, they keep promising you don't worry, I'm gonna bring you to America. I just be like, okay, it's fine. Anywhere God wants me to be I'll be there. That's it. I just keep pushing, you know, not until you just say, send me your passports, and apply for the visa. I'm like, wow. It's like, it's really serious, yeah”.
“I just found myself in Bristol. This is unbelievable. That really motivates me, like for me to make it from Nigeria down to here. That means I can make it in the long way, in the sport. So I just keep pushing, training and doing my thing”.
Tosin highlighted the differences between life in Nigeria and the UK, speaking about the struggles such as the accent and most surprisingly, vegetables.
“When I moved to Bristol, I lived with Sean. He’s got a very good family with the kids. First of all it was strange, because of the language, the kind of English is different. You know, when I speak and when I say something, they are like, what are you talking about? I have to keep repeating myself from time to time for them to understand, it’s the same English but the accent is different”.
“The food as well. When I first moved here, they asked me to be eating, like vegetables and stuff like that. Broccoli and I’m like I don’t eat this” he laughed. “It's kind of different. But as time goes on, I just have to adapt and keep doing it”.
Professional Boxing Career
We moved on to talk about his professional career so far, looking at some of his recent fights, with an important one being his African Title fight, where he faced Tanzanian Abdul Ubaya. This fight went viral online and even won the promoter’s Neilson’s Fight of the Year, which he was pleased about.
“That was a very tough fight. I wasn't expecting that guy to beat as tough as he was. I trained so hard for that fight, so all you throw at me is others like, I’ll throw it back at him as well”.
Tosin is in good hands, where he is being coached by former professional boxer Tony Borg. Tony has experience training great fighters, such as Welshman Lee Selby, who was 28-4 across his career where he won many belts including the WBC International Featherweight title and the IBF Featherweight title.
He praised his coach highly, and talked about how key it is having someone in his corner with the level of knowledge and expertise like that:
“So tough. Coach is really good. He’ll push you so hard, even though you feel like you don't want to do it no more, if like you still got something in you keep pushing you no matter what, he’s a very good man”.
We looked forward to his biggest fight to date, where he will fight 10-0 Lewis Edmondson in Bournemouth on 1 March for the Commonwealth Light Heavyweight title.
I asked him about the fight, how big of an occasion is this for him what the feeling is like to compete for a belt like this early on his career, “So really happy. I'm so excited for that and can’t wait for the fight night”.
“That's all I've been waiting for, anyway, my whole career. Like, a big deal like that. So now it's here”. “They’re (the fans) going to know my name now”.
“I don't know what he’s gonna do, but I'm just about myself. I just want to go there and win. That's it”.
Elizabeth Oshoba
Lastly we spoke about fellow Nigerian boxer Elizabeth Oshoba, who is currently undefeated at 8-0, his connection with her and what it is like to see her succeed on the big stage.
“She’s a very good girl. She pushes me when I don't want to do nothing, even sometimes I don't want to go for a run. She’ll be like, okay, just let's go”.
“The dream is like, you know, we want to both be a world champion, where we come from, the same place we have the same story and same background. You know, also be a world champion is going to be mean good things for us here, take your title back home and make the country proud”.