On June 28, news broke that Jeremiah Okorodudu, a Nigerian boxing star, had died at a private hospital in Surulere, Lagos.

Okorodudu, 64, died after battling foot ulcer for several months. Before this, he had suffered a partial stroke and battled diabetes.

A quarter-finalist in the middleweight division at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Okorodudu died a day before a scheduled surgery to amputate his leg.

Popularly known as Jerry because of his name (Jeremiah) and his Jheri curl hairstyle, Okorodudu had, before the Olympics, won a gold medal at the commonwealth games held in Brisbane, Australia, in 1982.

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Regrettably, the management of the private hospital where he died refused to release his body to his family because a N600,000 hospital bill had not been cleared.

Before this, the pugilist referred to as one of Nigeria’s bests in the ’80s, faced many struggles. Here are some of them:

SACKED BY JIM NWOBODO AS BOXING COACH

After retiring from active boxing, the Delta State-born boxing legend was employed as a boxing coach by the Nigerian sports ministry in the late ’90s.

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A few years into his appointment however, Jim Nwobodo, the then sports minister, sacked Okorodudu. The action led to a protracted legal battle that lasted 10 years.

REINSTATED BUT PAID PEANUTS

In 2013, the legal department of the sports ministry reached a truce with Okorodudu, asking him to withdraw the case from court. When he did, he was employed as a contract coach, a position different from the full-time position he once held.

This happened under the administration of Bolaji Abdullahi, the then sports minister.

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During the period however, Okorodudu had to contend with two new issues — salary size and regular payment. The Olympian’s re-employment period coincided with the time the ministry employed the services of two American coaches, Angie Taylor and Eric Campbell.

While the ministry placed Okorodudu on a N150,000 monthly salary, Taylor and Campbell earned $12,000 and $10,000 monthly salaries respectively. This prompted the former boxer to agitate for better pay, but his protests fell on deaf ears.

To add salt to injury, the salary was inconsistent as he only received payment from 2014 to 2016. The contract was supposed to run for five years.

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While the ministry stopped paying the Nigerian’s salaries, it continued paying the foreign coaches.

TERMINATION OF APPOINTMENT AND ILLNESS

In 2018, and despite being owed several months’ salaries, the sports ministry terminated Okorodudu’s contract. While being owed salary payments, and after making several efforts to get the ministry to pay the money he was being owed, the boxer suffered a partial stroke in 2020. This was after he had been diagnosed of diabetes.

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Before his death, the boxing star solicited help from several quarters so he could overcome his health challenges.