Umar Sadiq

Manor Park light-heavyweight Umar Sadiq punched out an impressive win-double in Repton colours in Lagos last week, when the Bethnal Green club boxers made their annual trip to box in Nigeria.

Manor Park light-heavyweight Umar Sadiq punched out an impressive win-double in Repton colours in Lagos last week, when the Bethnal Green club boxers made their annual trip to box in Nigeria.

The Lagos boxers had scored a 4-2 team win over the visitors in the first match on Thursday, but the Repton squad bounced back in style – registering a revenge 4-1 victory in the second match two nights later.

In the first match, staged at the Eko Hotel, 23-year-old Sadiq and talented lightweight Ohara Davies were the lone Repton winners, but it was a sweet revenge success for the Manor Park boxer.

For he met old rival Muri Shango, who he clashed with a year earlier in Lagos, when the 2-1 decision was announced as a victory in favour of Sadiq, only for one judge to reverse his score to favour the local favourite, after the home fans protested,

This time it was Sadiq taking command of the clash from the opening bell, finding the gaps in his rival’s defences with long-range attacks to build up a points advantage.

The powerful Shango slammed back with his own punches, but could not cut back the deficit as Sadiq made sure of his revenge points verdict – with no second thoughts from the judges.

Two night later, the teams met again at the National Stadium, where the Manor Park boxer’s contest against Wasiu Balogun produced the top clash of the tournament.

They traded punches in exciting exchanges in the opening round, but Sadiq stepped up the pace, ripping home powerful punches to overwhelm his rival – and the referee stopped the contest in his favour in the second round.