Friday Chinedu Ahunanya (born 19 November 1971) is a Nigerian

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 ...

. He is a journeyman heavyweight, best known for beating several undefeated prospects and for his appearances on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

fight cards.

Amateur career

* 1994:

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, Bangkok, Thailand, Heavyweight: ** Lost to Georgi Kandelaki (Georgia) on points * 1994:

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

, Victoria, Heavyweight: **Defeated Roland Raforme (Seychelles) on points **Lost to Stephen Gallinger (Canada) on points

Professional career

Known as Friday "The 13th," Ahunanya began his career in 1998 with a good deal of promise, winning his first 16 fights including a victory over undefeated (16-0-1) Nate Jones. In 2001 he lost a decision to undefeated (15-0) Olympian and future titlist

Serguei Lyakhovich Siarhei Piatrovich Liakhovich ( be, Сяргей Пятровіч Ляховіч, Siarhiej Piatrovič Lachovič; russian: Серге́й Петро́вич Ляхо́вич, Sergey Petrovich Lyakhovich; also Siarhiej Piatrovič Liachovič or Siar ...

. In 2002, he handed French Olympian Josue Blocus his first loss. In 2004, he had his only early loss when hit in the eye in the 4th round by

Lance Whitaker Lance Whitaker (born May 29, 1971) is an American former professional boxer. As an amateur in the super heavyweight division, he won a bronze medal at the 1995 Pan American Games. Nicknamed "Mount", or more recently "Goofi", Whitaker was known ...

. The loss to Whitaker was the beginning of the decline for Ahunanya. He went on to lose to

Taurus Sykes Taurus Jabbar Sykes, (born May 20, 1975) is a professional boxer. He has been fighting as a heavyweight, and has fought against several contenders, and currently holds a record of 25-6-1. He turned pro in 1998. Overview Sykes, who hails from B ...

in New Mexico, who was not highly regarded in spite of his 22-1-1 record in 2005, arguably the low point of his career. He then drew with fringe contender

Dominick Guinn Dominick Alexander Guinn (born April 20, 1975) is an American professional boxer. He is self-managed and he is trained by Ronnie Shields and Alexander Gutierrez. He stands at 6'3" tall. Known as the "Southern Disaster",Gerbasi, Thomas (2013)Domi ...

, and then was competitive in losing efforts against undefeated prospects

Sultan Ibragimov Sultan-Ahmed Magomedsalihovich Ibragimov (russian: Султан-Ахмед Магомедсалихович Ибрагимов, av, Султан-АхӀмад МухӀаммадсалихӀазул вас Ибрагьимов; born 8 March 1975 ...

(Olympic silver medalist) and Alexander Povetkin (Olympic Gold medalist). In 2007 he rebounded by handing 19-0

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

prospect Shane Cameron his first loss by knocking him down twice in the 12th and final round. After the second knockdown, the referee intervened and stopped the contest, earning Ahunanya a TKO victory. In 2008 he stopped another undefeated prospect in

Alonzo Butler Alonzo Butler (born October 30, 1979) is an American heavyweight boxer. Professional record , - , align="center" colspan=8, 35 fights, 30 wins (23 knockouts), 3 losses (0 knockouts), 1 draw , - , align=center style="border-style: none none sol ...

. Ahunanya lost to

David Tua Faumuina To'aletai Mafaufau David Tua (born 21 November 1972), best known as David Tua, is a Samoan-New Zealand former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2013. A highly ranked heavyweight contender for most of his career, Tua was kno ...

in March 2010 in New Zealand via decision. However Ahunanya and his manager claimed he should have won, and would have if the fight had been in the USA. After further review it was obvious that David Tua won the fight by unanimous decision.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahunanya, Friday 1971 births Heavyweight boxers Living people Sportspeople from Port Harcourt Nigerian male boxers