Nobuaki Hiranaka, the head of Okinawa’s Hiranaka Boxing School Gym, and Japan Boxing Commission President Minoru Hagiwara offered their respective apologies to fans as well as to the parties concerned on June 30 for having two Nigerians taking part in the professional boxing bouts in Sapporo on May 14.

This is because the two Nigerian ‘’boxers,’’ who were knocked out easily in the first round in their respective bouts with fellow Nigerians, were recently found to be different persons from the ones originally intended.

Hiranaka, a former World Boxing Association super lightweight champion, said at the day’s JBC executive committee meeting, ‘’It was my responsibility because I did not go to an airport to receive boxers. I am really sorry.’’

The 37-year-old Samuel Moses was quickly knocked out by top-ranked Japanese featherweight Ridwan Oyekola of Hiranaka gym in a scheduled eight-round super featherweight bout, while the 26-year-old Oyekola’s stablemate Kazeem Lawal, 34, was also decked in the opening round by JJ Ologun, 23, in a scheduled middleweight four-rounder.

The two knocked-out Nigerians were said to be brought to Japan through Bobby Ologun, a once-popular Nigerian-born television personality in Japan currently serving as a manager of Hiranaka gym. But they are strongly suspected of being different persons. JJ Ologun is the 55-year-old Bobby Ologun’s son.

The two knocked-out boxers were later found out to be Nigerians living in Japan. Though they had some experience in boxing, they did not have any experience as professional boxers.

While Hiranaka paid their airline tickets and their purse, nobody knows the flow of the money afterwards.

Also, neither JBC nor the gym did not check their passports when they ‘’entered’’ Japan. Had somebody checked their passports, it would have been found out easily that the two were different from the originally intended boxers, according to official sources.

In this connection, Hagiwara said, ‘’It is our procedural mistake. We will see to it that the similar things never recur.

JBC quoted Bobby Ologun as saying he has had too much confidence on the agent in this respect. But he was cheated in the final analysis.

JBC intends to punish the parties concerned after further investigation by getting in touch with the imposters as their real names and addresses are known by Bobby Ologun.