David Kotei

David Kotey (originating from the Kotei family, born 7 December 1950 in Accra, Ghana) was a world featherweight boxing champion between 1975 and 1976 and was also the first Ghanaian professional boxer to win a world title. He was popularly called "D.K. Poison".[1]

D K Poison
Statistics
Real nameDavid Kotey
Nickname(s)Poison
Weight(s)Featherweight
Lightweight
Nationality Ghanaian
Born (1950-12-07) 7 December 1950
Accra, Ghana
StanceOrthodox
Boxing record
Total fights60
Wins49
Wins by KO31
Losses8
Draws3
No contests0

Amateur career

DK Poison started his amateur career in Accra. He is one of many boxers spawned by Bukom, 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 are products of Bukom.[2]

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.[3] Although he fought once in neighbouring Togo 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 Tunis, Tunisia. Later on 7 December 1974, he also won the Commonwealth featherweight title with a technical knock out over Evan Armstrong, 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 version of the world title. On 20 September 1975, in The Forum, Inglewood, California, United States, he beat Rubén Olivares by split points decision after 15 rounds to become the first Ghanaian world boxing champion.[4][5] 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.[6] 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.[7][8]

Professional boxing record
49 Wins (31 Knockouts), 8 Defeats (3 Knockouts), 3 Draws[8]
Res. Record Opponent Type Rd., Time Date Location Notes
Loss 49-8-3 Akwei Addo KO 9(12) 1989-09-30 Orion Cinema Hall, Accra For African Boxing Union Lightweight title.
Loss 39–5-2 Eddie Ndukwu PTS 15 1978-09-29 National Stadium, Lagos For Commonwealth Featherweight title.
Loss 38–4-2 Danny Lopez TKO 6 (15) 1978-02-15 Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada For WBC World Featherweight title.
Won 36–3-2 Laurent Bazie PTS 15 1977-07-30 El Wak Stadium, Accra Won vacant African Boxing Union Featherweight title.
Loss 34-3-2 Danny Lopez UD 15 1976-11-06 Accra Sports Stadium, Accra Lost WBC World Featherweight title.
Loss 31-2-2 Rubén Olivares SD 15 1975-09-20 Forum, Inglewood, California Won WBC World Featherweight title.
Win 29-2-1 Evan Armstrong TKO 10(15) 1974-12-07 Accra Sports Stadium, Accra Won Commonwealth Featherweight title.
Win 27-2-1 Tahar Ben Hassen KO 1(15) 1974-02-02 Palais du Sport, Tunis Won African Boxing Union Featherweight title.
Draw 18–0-1 Freddie Mensah SD 8 1971-06-05 Accra Sports Stadium, Accra
Win 11–0 Teddy Walker TKO 4(15) 1969-03-01 Black Star Square, Accra Won Ghanaian Featherweight title.
Win 7-0 Kid Killer TKO 8(8) 1968-03-01 Prempeh Assembly Hall, Kumasi
Win 6-0 Peter Ayivor PTS 8 1967-06-05 Lomé
Win 5–0 Emmanuel Dudzro PTS 8 1967-05-02 Lomé
Win 4–0 Shido Armah KO 3(8) 1967-03-01 Accra
Win 3–0 Bob Cofie TKO 6 (8) 1966-12-10 Accra Sports Stadium, Accra Welterweight contest
Win 2–0 Abu Norgah TKO 4 (8) 1966-09-03 Accra Sports Stadium, Accra
Win 1–0 Famous Lartey PTS 6 1966-02-05 Accra Sports Stadium, Accra Professional Debut

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.[6]

Loan to Ghana

According to reports and Kotey's own story, in 1976, he loaned an amount of 45,000 dollars to the Government of Ghana, then led by Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.[9] 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.[9] 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.[9] In September 2019,the president of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo noted that he would look into the issue.[10] This was at a meeting with a delegation of former world boxing champions from Ghana.[11][5]

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 in his honour entitled "D. K. Poison Mo".[12]

gollark: Some sort of eeevil rackmount?
gollark: What server do you use, then?
gollark: Done, the backdoors *should* reinitialize in maybe 5 minutes.
gollark: I can just thingummy it remotely.
gollark: Besides, redundant power supplies, I would have to unplug it twice.

See also

Notes and references
  1. "On September 20, 1975 DK "Poison" becomes Ghana's first professional boxing world champion". Edward A. Ulzen Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  2. "Bukom: heartbeat of African boxing". BBC News:Africa. BBC. 25 June 2003. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  3. "D.K Poison: Ghana has failed me". The Globe. 22 November 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  4. "David Kotey". BoxRec.com. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  5. "D.K. Poison grateful to Prez Akufo-Addo". Graphic Online. Accra: Graphic Communications Group Ltd. 30 October 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  6. "A Hero's Anguish". News archive. Ghana Home Page. 20 August 2002. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  7. "David Kotey-Original Poison". koboxingforum.com. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  8. "David Kotey". boxrec.com. BoxRec. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  9. "Sad: Penniless 'D.K Poison' still chases after $45,000 he loaned to gov't". myjoyonline.com. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  10. "Akufo-Addo to look into D.K. Poison's case". ghanaweb.com. 18 September 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  11. "Gov't to look into D.K. Poison's case". www.myjoyonline.com. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  12. "Snr Eddie Donkor & The Internationals - D. K. Poison mo (Ghana)". youtube.com. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
Achievements
Preceded by
Rubén Olivares		 WBC Featherweight Champion
20 Sep 1975 – 6 Nov 1976		 Succeeded by
Danny Lopez
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