Professional boxer Akimos Ampiah trains at Atton Quarshie Gym, in the Jamestown district of Accra, on December 11, 2024. (Photo by OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP)
The dusty concrete floor, worn gloves and battered punching bags of the Attoh Quarshie “Home of the Sweet Science” gym in Ghana may not look like much.
But this modest boxing club is part of a network of gyms teaching this noble art in just one small district of Accra, known internationally as the epicenter of the sport.
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A few feet away, another establishment, Will Power Boxing Gym, greets those who enter with the “Go Hard or Go Home” sign.
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More than a dozen small gyms are scattered along the winding streets of the deprived Jamestown neighborhood and its Bukom neighborhood, near the city’s fishing port on the Atlantic Ocean.
Jamestown has already produced its share of champions, whose faded posters now adorn club walls, including Azumah “The Professor” Nelson, considered by many to be Africa’s greatest boxer.
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A new generation of Jamestown champions is on the rise.
“Ghanaian boxing is all based in Jamestown,” said John Zile, 24, a professional with a 15-0 record, fighting at the district’s Bronx Boxing Gym and who moved to Jamestown from the north.
Professional boxer Prince Larbi, also known as Prince The Buzz Larbi, trains at the Will Power Boxing Gym in the Jamestown area of Accra on December 10, 2024. (Photo by OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP)
“If you want to be great, you have to come here.”
Boxing coaches attribute the growth of Jamestown and Bukom boxing to the difficult life of the fishing community and a tradition of settling disputes the old-fashioned way: with a show of force.
This eventually evolved into the boxing business.
“It became clear on this side of the country that boxing belonged to them,” said Lawrence Carl Lokko, owner of Bronx Boxing and a well-known trainer.
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Two rules
The sport is also a path to a disciplined life, far from the streets of Jamestown where opportunities are few, he said.
Among his stable of fighters is John “Expensive Boxer” Laryea, WBO African champion and former national titleholder.
Nearby, the neighborhood boxing stadium regularly hosts tournaments between Jamestown clubs.
In Attoh Quarshie’s sparse gymnasium, just meters from the beach, trainers put the sweat-soaked fighters through their paces on the bags, before a whistle marks a break between rounds.
Inside the ring, two other boxers move and the strikers concentrate the mitts held by the partners.
Near the entrance, a wooden board spells out the gym rules: “Rule 1. The coach is never wrong. Rule 2. If you think the trainer is wrong, refer to rule 1.”
Photos of past tournaments and the gym team cover part of the peeling red and yellow walls.
“They train you well,” said fighter Akimos Ampiah, a professional bantamweight, between rounds on the heavy bag.
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“Boxing. It’s a tradition here.
