{"id":1245,"date":"2023-01-03T19:53:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T19:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/01\/03\/how-a-british-boxing-champ-returned-to-his-ghanaian-roots-on-an-english-chicken-farm\/"},"modified":"2023-01-03T19:53:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T19:53:49","slug":"how-a-british-boxing-champ-returned-to-his-ghanaian-roots-on-an-english-chicken-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/01\/03\/how-a-british-boxing-champ-returned-to-his-ghanaian-roots-on-an-english-chicken-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"How a British boxing champ returned to his Ghanaian roots on an English chicken farm"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/span>
Francis Ampofo, nicknamed \u201cThe Pocket Battleship\u201d, was a Commonwealth flyweight champion but lost four world title bouts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The road to the ring is rarely a straightforward one for boxers, while the path that leads away can often be perilous.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Francis Ampofo is a man who fought his way from the streets of London, where he moved as a child from Ghana, to the top of British boxing in the 1990s \u2013 yet the canvas was not to be his only source of glory.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After stepping out of the ring, he took on the world of business in 2003 with the purchase of a 26-acre farm in Norfolk with 10,000 chickens \u2013 a nod to his own early life running free in Kumasi.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI always loved chickens, from back in Ghana,\u201d Ampofo, 55, told BBC Sport Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I came here (to the farm), I knew this is it: boxing is over \u2013 I want to get into chickens now.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Twice holding both the British and Commonwealth flyweight titles, Ampofo also challenged for the world title on four occasions \u2013 the first coming when losing to South Africa\u2019s \u201cBaby\u201d Jake Matlala for the WBO title at London\u2019s York Hall in 1994.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a 12-year career, Ampofo won 17 of 28 professional bouts but after retiring in 2002 he returned to something far closer to his heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was born in Ashtown, Kumasi, which is right in the Ashanti region,\u201d he explained. \u201cI didn\u2019t really know my mum that well, because she came here (to England) when I was three. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe came to work in the National Health Service and then I was looked after by my grandmother for another three years and that\u2019s where reality started \u2013 start working.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was selling mangoes, oranges, so she\u2019d peel them all, put them in a bowl that I\u2019d carry on my head and go around selling them, then go back for more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Francis<\/span><\/span>
Ampofo bought his chicken farm in the English county of Norfolk in 2003<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ampofo would work around his schooling in Ghana, where he loved living. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fantastic time. When I first came to this country, I really, really wanted to go back to Ghana. My mum doesn\u2019t know this but I hated it because it was like prison to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGhana, from six in the morning, I\u2019m out \u2013 nice and sunny \u2013 doing what I want, or I go to work in Kumasi market. In this country, it\u2019s different. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou are locked in all the time, you are inside the house. You don\u2019t go out unless you\u2019re going to school. After school, you\u2019re home. That\u2019s it, there\u2019s no out.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

His sense of boredom was not helped by the fact that he \u201cdidn\u2019t know anyone really\u201d in England, a big contrast to his homeland. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we lived (in Ghana), we had about maybe six or seven chickens and they had a little coop where I would go to get all the eggs before giving them to my nan. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo every morning, that was my job: cleaning chickens, feeding them, giving them water \u2013 and all that played a big part in this.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think [of] young me and I like animals, birds, chickens, so those early days played a big part in me coming (to the farm).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Defending himself at school<\/h3>\n