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One of the cruiserweight division's toughest and most well-traveled veterans is hanging up the gloves. Former IBO and interim WBO champion Ola Afolabi has officially retired from the sport after fourteen years in the ring. Afolabi made the announcement on Tuesday, his thirty-sixth birthday.
Perhaps best-known for his four-fight series with Marco Huck, the last of which ended in Afolabi's first-ever TKO loss from a swollen-shut eye, Afolabi (22-5-4, 11 KO) has been a mainstay of the 200-pound elite for over seven years, dating back to his 2009 knockout of Enzo Maccarinelli for the interim WBO title. Arguably the biggest and almost certainly the most dramatic victory of his career came last November when he sparked former Olympic silver medalist Rakhim Chakhkiev with a brutal left hook. Though he ultimately went 0-3-1 against "Cap'n Huck," he gave the longtime WBO champion some of his stiffest challenges and arguably deserved at least one victory.
Afolabi enjoyed a long, successful career and is making what appears to be an informed decision to step away from the sport with his faculties intact. We here at Bad Left Hook wish him the best in his future endeavors and leave you with his one-punch flattening of Terry Dunstan for old times' sake.