Heavyweight Kingsley Ibeh, 14-2-1 (12 KOs), almost found himself fighting Fabio Wardley in the United Kingdom. Instead, his coach ran into passport issues.
Speaking to Lucas Ketelle of BoxingScene, Ibeh recounted the near miss.
“We had an opportunity to go to the UK to fight Fabio Wardley. I was ready for that, for him. I think God saved him that time,” Ibeh said, laughing.
“That fight was, I believe, two years ago… I was ready to go, but what stopped that fight from happening was passport. My coach didn’t have his passport, and I believe in the U.S. it takes about two weeks to get the passport.
“I said, you know what, I was so willing to make that fight happen, I was gonna go without a coach. And then at that point in my time, my immigration status, they’re like, ‘if you leave without coming back, it might be harder to get back.’ But the biggest issue that that fight did not happen was due to passport reasons.”
Ibeh resides in Arizona but was born in Nigeria, and has only ever fought in the United States or Mexico.
He noted that getting a showcase opportunity can take a while, referring to fellow heavyweight Martin Bakole needing to wait years before making the most of his big moment with a thunderous stoppage of Jared “Big Baby” Anderson (who stopped Ibeh in 2021).
Ibeh will next fight Scott Alexander, 17-6-2 (9 KOs), on January 10.
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