'I'm no longer going to fight as an amateur' - Samuel Takyi declares

Ghana’s lone medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Samuel Takyi has disclosed that he is no longer going to fight amateur but will join the paid ranks and still raise the flag of his nation.

Speaking on TV3’s popular weekend show ‘Warm Up Plus,' the 20-year-old boxer said “I am going professional, and hope God will help me to do it and raise the flag of Ghana high.

“I and my coach are ready for professional (career). I have a dream, I have to make it, I am young and I have records to break. We must make it earlier,” he expressed.

According to the ‘Ring Warrior’, it is the dream of every serious sportsman to go to the Olympic Games, and once he has gained that experience and won a medal, he has to move on.

Many officials, including the President of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) Mr. Ben Nunoo Mensah tried to convince him to go to the 2022 Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, but Takyi says he is done with the amateur level.

The President of the Ghana Boxing Federation (GBF) Mr. George Lamptey says it will be sad for the national team to lose such a gem, but he cannot force him, so they only have to find new talents to replace him, like how he was nurtured to become an international hero.

He described Takyi as a real star who is very serious and also congratulated him for putting Ghana’s name on the medal table at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Takyi trains under coach Lawrence Ampofo Quaye at the Discipline Boxing Gym in Accra.

He was called into the Black Bombers in 2019, and qualified in Senegal for the Olympic Games where he placed fourth best and first in Africa.