Ogun Govt Set To Honour World Boxing Champion Anthony Joshua, To Name Stadium, Street After Him.

The Ogun State Government has revealed that it has plans to honour new world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua.

Joshua defeated veteran Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley in London on Saturday, knocking out the Ukrainian in the 11th round. The bout was watched by 90,000 fans inside the stadium.

The London 2012 Olympic Games gold medallist was born in England to a Nigerian mother and father, who comes from Sagamu in Ogun State.

Ogun State Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Afolabi Afuape, told our correspondent on the telephone on Monday that the plans to honour Joshua, who spent some of his early years in Nigeria before returning to England, had not been finalised.

Afuape said, “Anthony Joshua has made us proud as our son. A decision will be taken on how the state will honour him.

Meanwhile, Majority Leader of the Ogun State House of Assembly Yinka Mafe says he will move a motion to have the Sagamu Stadium renamed Anthony Joshua Stadium, and the popular Cinema Street in Sagamu renamed Anthony Joshua Street, according to ESPN.

Of the two, the street is the most significant, as his family owns almost half the land and property on one side of the street.

The cinema, from which the road takes its name, was built by his great grandfather Daniel Adebambo Joshua in the 50s, and is one of the oldest of such facilities in the country.

Mafe joined hundreds of Sagamu youths to watch the fight in an open air viewing event organised by the Sagamu Youth Congress, and was thrilled by both the turnout and the outcome.

“We are proud of what he has achieved as a son of Sagamu, and we will be happy to do our own little bit to show our appreciation and support for him,” Mafe said.