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Nojim Maiyegun, Nigeria’s first-ever Olympic medalist, dies at 83

BY Idris Shehu

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Nojim Maiyegun, a former Nigerian boxer, has died at 83. 

The death of the legendary boxer was confirmed in a Facebook post by Rudolfine F Soultan, a confidante, on Monday.

“My Jimmy died. I can’t say more about this right now because it’s just horrible. The day after tomorrow, we would have been together for 17 years,” the post reads.

A source close to the family of the deceased also told TheCable that Maiyegun breathed his last on Monday morning at his base in Vienna, Austria.

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Maiyegun, who became visually impaired a few years ago, was reportedly battling an unnamed illness for a couple of months.

He was the first Nigerian to win an Olympic medal.

Maiyegun was 23 when he won a bronze medal in the light-heavyweight boxing category at Tokyo 1964.

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In the second round of the competition, he defeated Great Britain’s William Robinson in just one minute and 59 seconds — a remarkable feat in amateur boxing.

He defeated Tom Bogs of Denmark in the quarter-final before losing to France’s Joseph Gonzalez in the semi-final.

Maiyegun and Poland’s Józef Grzesiak settled for the bronze.

Two years later, in 1966, he won another bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.

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Maiyegun left Nigeria in 1971 to begin a professional boxing career.

He fought 16 times and won 12 — 10 of them by knockouts.

 

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