▪️”My life has totally changed in Mexico people appreciate me unlike back home. I’m now living in my own house not like in Japan where I was sleeping in the gym,” says Oyekola
May 21, 2026
Former Nigerian poultry hawker and commercial motorcycle (okada) rider, Ridwan “Scorpion” Oyekola today, May 21, 2026, faces Mexican boxer Manuel Alejandro Romero in a stacked IBA Pro card welterweight clash. The thrilling showdown takes place at the iconic Arena CDMX in Mexico City, Mexico.
“I know nothing about my opponent, I’ll just go there fight him and win,” Oyekola told boxersworld.co.ke in an interview from Mexico.
“They know me here as a tough fighter, so my opponent should be ready to absorb punishment.”
Oyeko is fighting in one of the undercards of IBA.Pro 18 card headlined by Mexico’s Angel Ayala aka Chameleon vs Filipino contender Jayson Mama in a 10-round bantamweight fight.
The Nigerian boxer moved to Mexico from Japan where he says life was not a bed of roses.
“In Japan I used to sleep in a gym, a lot happened to me there it was not easy. I was badly managed, people back in Nigeria think I was living well but I can say with a big NO!, life was not easy I was badly handled by my countryman he was speaking Japan, I didn’t understand anything so he signed a contract behind my back.”
Moving to Mexico changed all this for the 29-year-old Oyekola.
“Life in Mexico is good I’m living comfortably in my own house, and people here appreciate me unlike back home in Nigeria,” says Oyekola
Oyekola’s journey to the international boxing stage is a remarkable tale of grit and determination. Before becoming a celebrated professional pugilist, Oyekola navigated the bustling streets of Nigeria as a poultry hawker and later an okada (motorcycle) rider. Today, his formidable punching power and relentless work ethic have earned him the nickname “Scorpion.” He is stepping into enemy territory in Mexico City, eager to prove that champions can be forged from the humblest of beginnings.
Standing opposite “Scorpion” is Manuel Alejandro Romero, a tough Mexican fighter ready to defend his home turf.
Which is Oyekola’s lowest moment in life?
He recalls one fateful rainy day, while carrying live chicken and turkey in Lagos, he slipped and fell directly into an open drainage gutter. Soaking wet and covered in dirt, cradling the surviving bird in his arms, the sheer humiliation and struggle of his situation hit him hard.
At that moment, he decided the chaotic streets of Lagos weren’t going to break him. He pivoted away from the daily grind of the city and headed back to his familiar base in Ibadan, Oyo State, and ventured into motorcycle business.
“It was a very sad day for losing all my chicken and turkey when I fell in the gutter, I went back to Ibadan to collect installment bike to feed myself before boxing gave me a future,” recalls Oyekola.
Every day, he navigated the dusty roads of Ibadan, splitting his time between riding the bike to make daily boundary payments and enduring grueling practice sessions in the gym.
His relentless discipline inside and outside the gym culminated in him capturing the World Boxing Federation (WBF) International Super Featherweight Championship in December 27, 2020 at the Ilaji Sports Resorts in Ibadan with an impressive unanimous points win over Argentine Lucas Mattias Montessino.
“He was a good boxer I respect Montessino but I was better than him, and the cheering crowd inspired me.”
And when did Oyekola start boxing?
“I started boxing in 2007, my coach was called Habeeb that’s how people used to call him then, that’s my first coach in Ibadan,” Oyekola told me in our phone chat.
A beating he got from a boxer who bullied him with his girlfriend pushed him to the gym to learn the sport.
“There’s a day I was walking with my girlfriend in the streets then one small boy misbehaved to my girlfriend, I tried to fight him but he beat up because he was a boxer, and I decided to go to the gym to learn boxing.”
He turned pro in 2017 after winning several accolades in amateur boxing.
I ask Oyekola who is his inspiration in the bare-chested game?
“The best Nigerian boxer who inspired me is now dead, he was called Akeem Sadiku Dodo,” he says
Oyekola told boxersworld.co.ke the Mexican pro boxing body has cleared him for today’s fight, and has been training at the Garmes Gym under coach Jonathan Ricardo Garcia.
Oyekola’s parting shot before stepping into the ring tonight was to shower the IBA with praise for their remarkable contribution to the growth of boxing worldwide, urging the illustrious and successful world body to keep on including more African boxers in IBA.Pro series expressing his delight for the good purse.
“I thank the IBA for inviting me to their card to represent the rest of Africa, they’re doing a very good for our continent under President Umar Kremlev,”
