In a world where almost, every kid around wants to be the next Messi or Ronaldo, two Nigerian brothers in Dublin Ireland, Prince Rasheed and Prince Khamal Momoh both from Castlebar Boxing Club are punching their way through every challenge in front of them to live their dreams and fight to become the best of the best in the world of boxing.
For sportsmen of their ages, Rasheed, 19, and Khamal, 17 possess fiery fists of fire that make their opponents piss in their pants. No wonder Kamal’s last opponent, Sacha Mcloughlin pulled out of the fight at the last minute, before his heart leaps out of his pounding chest.
91kg Rasheed takes the old boxing phrase, “hit and don’t let be hit” literarily, and in his first-ever set of contests, he came out with flawless victories – a 5-0 decision win against Cathal Kinane, 5-0 against Michael Agbo from the Olympics Boxing Club, Robbie Olusola from Celtic Eagles B.C., Galway and finally against Dolapo delivering another 5-0 victory to win the National Senior Novice Heavyweight boxing title at the Dublin National Stadium, Ireland and remains the All Ireland Senior Men’s heavyweight Champion.
For these two Momoh brothers from the Auchi Momoh’s Royal Family, it runs deep in their genes. Born in 2003 and 2005 respectively, Rasheed and Khamal used to witness their elder brother, Abdul’s multiple talents being applauded and awarded by various crowds, schools, communities, and clubs as their mother and “Momager”, Aminah who herself used to be an athlete for her school before migrating from Nigeria, would put them inside her car to the venues of their brother’s matches and fights. Abdul was that gifted – soccer, javelin, judo, and rugby, Abdul who is now based in Bulgaria is the wildcard of each of his coaches.
He won Players’ Player of the Year, Soccer Player of the Year awards, Judo, Javelin and Short put Championships in Ireland. So, Rasheed and Khamal had started drawing inspiration when they were 4 and 2 respectively. They also have an elder sister, Zainab who also won laurels in Irish Dancing.
Rasheed’s interest had earlier started in soccer while Khamal was shining in Rugby, but in April 2020, during Covid-19, and the global lockdown shuts all down, boredom spurred a turning point in their lives. Again, their elder brother Abdul was the catalyst. He started going to a local gym near their house and would take them along. As time went on, the gym visits metamorphosed into rigorous trainings – they would find the nearest garden, forest, gym house and then go dip themselves in water after trainings.
It all became a challenge when school resumed.
Rasheed who is studying Biomedical science in third-level education in Sligo had his training restricted to only evenings and dear! He turned it into hardcore. Under every weather, Rasheed would defy nature to work up sweats and develop himself to get better by the day, knowing well that he came a bit late to the boxing sport unlike his pairs.
Seven months ago, Rasheed went fully into boxing, joined the Castlebar Boxing club and immediately registered his superiority with his clinical left jabs and heavy right blows, catching his opponents with every punch, while slipping away from the opponents’ punches. Rasheed has become a deadly destroyer in the ring.
Khamal first contest was a walkover after his fighting opponent failed to show up. Who would have shown up to become the first ‘roasted chicken’ of such a fiery boxer whose training ring shakes like a volcano? His trainers had to urge him to reduce the velocity of his punches during sparring sessions – even his mother nearly passed out while witnessing one.
He is that good. That was how he became the Connacht Junior Champion.
In the next two years, as they are expected to start attracting sponsorship deals, these two gifted brothers will be going professional and ready to put their footprints on the sand of time and stamp on the history of boxing, while making Africa and Nigeria proud, starting with the 2024 Olympics.
According to their coach, Myles Cresham, they are no novice boxers at all, and they should be in the UK, punching their way to the global boxing stage.
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Joseph Omoniyi
