A former Nigerian boxer and first-ever Olympic medalist, Nojim Maiyegun has died at the age of 83.
A confidante, Rudolfine F Soultan, confirmed the death of the boxer in a Facebook post on Monday.
The post read, “My Jimmy died. I can’t say more about this right now because it’s just horrible. The day after tomorrow, we would have been together for 17 years.”
Maiyegun as per The Cable breathed his last on Monday morning at his base in Vienna, Austria.
Maiyegun was reportedly battling an unnamed illness for a couple of months.
At 23, he won Nigeria’s first Olympic media (Bronze) in the light-heavyweight boxing category at Tokyo 1964.
In the second round of the competition, he defeated Great Britain’s William Robinson in just one minute and 59 seconds.
He defeated Tom Bogs of Denmark in the quarter-final before losing to France’s Joseph Gonzalez in the semi-final.
Maiyegun and Poland’s Józef Grzesiak settled for the bronze.
Two years later, in 1966, he won another bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.
Maiyegun left Nigeria in 1971 to begin a professional boxing career.
He fought 16 times and won 12 — 10 of them by knockouts.
