Born and raised in Bariga, Lagos State, Idris Gbadamosi is a featherweight boxer who leaves knockout victims in his wake as he carves out a record in Dubai 5,677 miles away from home.
Gbadamosi made the move to Dubai in 2021 after getting support from a good samaritan, Nathaniel Olajide, who came across the 22-year-old on social media.
“I used to post videos of my training online and my amateur fights. There was this guy in Switzerland who was born there, but he is of Nigerian descent, Nathaniel Olajide. He had never been to Nigeria before and he just decided to help me and sponsored my trip to Dubai,” he told PUNCH Sports Extra.
As an amateur in Nigeria, Gbadamosi boasted a record of 74 fights, 70 wins, and four losses. Since turning professional, he has maintained a perfect record of wins and knockouts.
On his professional debut, he faced Filipino, Shandle Eduardo, on October 23, 2021, and secured a first-round knockout win, showing promise of his potential from the early days. In his next fight against Fahad Mulindwa on January 15, 2022, he knocked out the Ugandan boxer in the third round.
Gbadamosi would go on to win his next four fights in Dubai all by knockouts, with only one lasting till the fourth round as he knocked out Ugandan Daniel Ssebunya in the first round on July 16, 2022, then UAE native, Bashir Kigozi, in the third round on December 9, 2022, while Indian boxer, Manikandan Venugopal, made it to the fourth round before going down in their bout earlier this year on January 28.
Last weekend, he maintained his dominance against Mohammed Abdelghany by dispatching the Egyptian boxer in the first round on Saturday.
When asked if he intentionally looks for the KO win against his opponents, Gbadamosi told PUNCH Sports Extra that he does not have a knockout tactic saying, “Boxing is unpredictable, you can’t just say you want to go for a knockout, it’s not that easy.
“The opponent is also training, knockouts happen unexpectedly. I never go for a knockout but I train very hard like six hours, eight hours. I was even thinking the last fight would last longer but it just happened like that in all the fights. It just happened and I am glad it did.”
