Boxing News – June 27, 2019

28 lBOXING NEWSlJUNE 27, 2019 http://www.boxingnewsonline.net

EMPIRE

STATE OF MIND

HE security guard’s eyes

widened and his mouth opened

in disbelief.

He quickly removed his

baseball cap and struggled to

find the words he was looking

for, as if a combination of Elvis

Presley, Tupac Shakur and

Queen Elizabeth II had decided today was the

day for a trip up the Empire State Building.

Instead, before him stood a beaming 5ft

9in man from Ghana who was hoping to take

a picture with his red and gold world title belt

102 floors above the mayhem of Manhattan.

All he needed was permission to take the

elevator with strap in hand.

“You’re Richard Commey,” the

security guard finally said. “Yes I am

and I am very pleased to meet

you,” replied the IBF lightweight

champion of the world.

“Man,” he sighed. “I’ve been

following you for so long – you

won that Robert Easter fight!”

Recognition of this type,

particularly in New York City,

has been a long time coming for

28-2 (25) Commey, who remains

one of the most underrated world

champions currently operating in the

sport.

He has been a resident of the Big Apple

since 2017 but unless you train at Andre Rozier’s

gym, or live in the small area of the Bronx where he

lives, you would never know it.

“My life is very simple,” Commey says. “It’s from

the gym to home. From home to the gym. I could be

living anywhere. That’s me, that’s how I like it – I like a

simple life. I don’t party much, or ever. In fact I don’t

go out. I don’t really have any friends here.”

But his encounter with the security guard, who he

later discovered was called Kevin, on one of his rare

trips across the Harlem River and into Manhattan,

showed Commey that he is not as anonymous as he

might like to think he is.

“That’s the beauty of boxing,” Commey adds. “I can

connect with people.

“It’s an amazing feeling but it’s strange though,

I’m quite a quiet person who keeps myself

to myself so to have people recognise me is

amazing.

“From where I’m from, it’s hard for us to get

to that level. For me to walk around the streets

of New York City and meet people who have

been following me for years, a die-hard fan,

man, that’s unbelievable. 

“It inspires me. When I see these

people, see the passion and love in

their eyes, I just know I have to

keep going and keep doing it for

them. I always want to do more

so I can put a smile on their

faces.

“That was the first time I’d

ever met Kevin but from the

way he spoke, I could tell he was

always a happy guy whenever he

saw me win.

“People stop me and say ‘wow,

man, you did it!’ That really lifts up my

image in one sense but other than that

it hasn’t changed me as a person or the way

I am.”

Commey hails from Jamestown in Bukom, the area

of Ghana’s capital Accra which is estimated to have

produced more world champions per square metre

than any other place on the planet.

When he beat Isa Chaniev to claim the vacant IBF

belt in February, Commey joined the likes of Azumah

Nelson, Ike Quartey and Joshua Clottey as a ➤

T

RICHARD

★COMMEY★

BIG INTERVIEW

MADE IT:

Commey

shows off his

IBF belt atop

the Empire

State Building

Richard Commey used to be able to walk through New York

unnoticed, but not on this day, writes Declan Taylor