David Kotey (originating from the Kotei family; born 7 December 1950), popularly called "D.K. Poison", is a former world featherweight boxing champion between 1975 and 1976. He is the first Ghanaian

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

to win a world title.

Amateur career

DK Poison started his amateur career in Accra. He is one of many boxers spawned by

Bukom Bukom Square is a place, associated with the "Ga" people, located in Ghana, in the heart of Accra, the capital. Bukom is known for its output of successful boxers to America. A large proportion of these boxers settle in the Bronx, New York Cit ...

, a suburb in the heart of the city populated by the Ga people. Many top Ghanaian boxers such as Roy Ankrah, Azuma Nelson and

Ike Quartey Isufu "Ike" Quartey (born 27 November 1969) is a Ghanaian former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2006. He held the WBA welterweight title from 1994 to 1998, and challenged once for IBF junior-middleweight title in 2000. Early year ...

are products of Bukom.

Professional career

David Kotey turned professional under trainer Attuquaye Clottey. His first professional bout was on 5 February 1966 in Accra when he outpointed his opponent over six rounds. He became the national featherweight champion that year. Although he fought once in neighbouring

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

in 1967, all his subsequent fights through to 1971 were all in Ghana. In 1972 however, he fought as much as seven times in Australia, winning five and losing two. He won the African featherweight title on 2 February 1974 when he knocked out Tahar Ben Hassen in the first round of a scheduled 15 round fight in

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Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. Later on 7 December 1974, he also won the Commonwealth featherweight title with a technical knock out over

Evan Armstrong Evan Armstrong (15 February 1943 – 8 July 2017) was a Scottish professional bantam/ feather/ super featherweight boxer of the 1960s and 1970s, who won the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) Scottish Area bantamweight title, BBBofC ...

, a British boxer in round 10 of a scheduled 15 rounds bout. This victory gave him an opportunity to go for the

World Boxing Council The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation ...

version of the world title. On 20 September 1975, in The Forum, Inglewood, California, United States, he beat

Rubén Olivares Rubén Olivares Avila (born January 14, 1947) is a Mexican former professional boxer and a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame., Olivares was a world champion multiple times, and considered by many as the greatest bantamweight champio ...

by split points decision after 15 rounds to become the first Ghanaian world boxing champion. He relinquished the African and Commonwealth titles following this victory. The Ghana government gave him an estate house at Teshie-Nungua, an Accra suburb in honour of this achievements in boxing. He however lost the title in his third defence on 6 November 1976 by unanimous points decision to Danny "Little Red" Lopez in a fierce fight in Accra, Ghana.He is married with three daughters. He also defeated Fuku Yama in Japan. DK Poison was never the same again after this defeat. He failed in 1978 to regain either the world or commonwealth featherweight titles. His last professional bout was in 1989 when he lost an African lightweight title fight.

Professional boxing record

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="8", 49 Wins (31 Knockouts), 8 Defeats (3 Knockouts), 3 Draws , - style="text-align:center; background:#e3e3e3;" , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Res. , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Record , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Opponent , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Type , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Rd., Time , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Date , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Location , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Notes , - align=center , Loss , 49-8-3 , align=left, Akwei Addo , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Loss , 39–5-2 , align=left,

Eddie Ndukwu Eddie Ndukwu (born 1 June 1950) is a Nigerian amateur and professional bantam/ super bantam/featherweight boxer of the 1960s, '70s and '80s who as an amateur won the gold medal at bantamweight in the Boxing at the 1966 British Empire and ...

, , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Loss , 38–4-2 , align=left, Danny Lopez , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Won , 36–3-2 , align=left, Laurent Bazie , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Loss , 34-3-2 , align=left, Danny Lopez , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 31-2-2 , align=left,

, , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 29-2-1 , align=left,

, , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 27-2-1 , align=left, Tahar Ben Hassen , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , style="background:#abcdef;", Draw , 18–0-1 , align=left, Freddie Mensah , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 11–0 , align=left, Teddy Walker , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 7-0 , align=left, Kid Killer , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 6-0 , align=left, Peter Ayivor , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 5–0 , align=left, Emmanuel Dudzro , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 4–0 , align=left, Shido Armah , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 3–0 , align=left, Bob Cofie , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 2–0 , align=left, Abu Norgah , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win , 1–0 , align=left, Famous Lartey , , , , align=left, , align=left,

Retirement

David Kotey has lived a relatively modest and quiet life after retirement. He has gone through marital and financial difficulties and reportedly has some grievances about how his purse was disbursed during his boxing years.

Loan to Ghana

According to reports and Kotey's own story, in 1976, he loaned an amount of 45,000

dollars Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, U ...

to the

Government of Ghana The Government of Ghana was created as a parliamentary democracy, followed by alternating military and civilian governments in Ghana. In January 1993, military government gave way to the Fourth Republic after presidential and parliamentary electi ...

, then led by

Ignatius Kutu Acheampong Ignatius Kutu Acheampong ( ; (23 September 1931 – 16 June 1979) was the military head of state of Ghana from 13 January 1972 to 5 July 1978, when he was deposed in a palace coup. He was executed by firing squad on 16 June 1979. Early life and ...

. The money was intended for the purchase of canned mackerel to mitigate the harsh economic and food conditions the country was facing. The loan had been facilitated by his management, which was led by Col John Slater. According to Kotey, the money was part of his reward for defending his title against Japan's Fuku Yama in 1976. The loan has not been paid back to date because shortly after the canned mackerels arrived in the country, the Acheampong's regime was overthrown by General Akuffo in a military palace coup in October 1975. In September 2019,the president of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo noted that he would look into the issue. This was at a meeting with a delegation of former world boxing champions from Ghana. The president of Ghana,Nana Akuffo Addo, on 6 October 2020 has directed an amount of $45,000 that was owed by Ghana to him on "compassionate grounds".

Song

After Kotey won the World featherweight title in Accra in September 1975, one of Ghana's leading highlife artists at the time, Senior Eddie Donkor released a song in

Twi Twi () is a dialect of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana by several million people, mainly of the Akan people, the largest of the seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. Twi has about 17-18 million speakers in total, includ ...

in his honour entitled "''D. K. Poison Mo''".

Notes and references

External links

* *http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=26610 *http://www.citifmonline.com/index.php?id=1.669463 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kotey, David Living people 1950 births Ghanaian male boxers Featherweight boxers Lightweight boxers World featherweight boxing champions World Boxing Council champions African Boxing Union champions Boxers from Accra