Evans Ashira

Originally a footballer, Evans Ashira followed his brothers into boxing after suffering a serious knee injury. Coached by his cousin [Charles Owiso] he made the Kenyan national squad in 1992 and the following year won a bronze medal at the Federation of East, Southern and Central African Boxing (FESCAABA) championships. In 1994 he won the silver at the FESCAABA championships and was selected for the Kenyan Commonwealth Games team though he was forced to withdraw after suffering a broken thumb. Ashira won the All-Africa Games welterweight title but lost his first bout at the Atlanta Games. After winning the Commonwealth Boxing Federation championships in late 1996 he decided to retire from boxing and returned to work on the docks at Mombasa.

His retirement lasted just six months and he left Kenya, first to fight for a Danish amateur club and later as a professional. Ashira won 23 successive fights, claiming a number of minor titles before suffering a crushing defeat to Samoa’s [Maselino Masoe] in a WBA world middleweight title fight. His second attempt at a world title, this time at super-middleweight, ended in defeat at the fists of Joe Calzaghe but in 2007 he picked up the lightly regarded IBA light-middleweight world title.