![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Boxer-696x392.jpg\" "\\"Boxer")
The road to the ring is rarely a straightforward one for boxers, while the path that leads away can often be perilous.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI always loved chickens, from back in Ghana,\u201d Ampofo, 55, told BBC Sport Africa.<\/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<\/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.<\/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.<\/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.<\/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.<\/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<\/p>\n Ampofo would work around his schooling in Ghana, where he loved living.<\/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.<\/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.<\/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<\/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.<\/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.<\/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.<\/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<\/p>\n Ampofo\u2019s early years in London were a challenge despite being reunited with his mother because his diminutive size made him a target at school, unwittingly starting his career.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to fight a lot at school. I\u2019d just come from Africa and couldn\u2019t really take the jokes,\u201d he said. \u201cI needed to defend myself a few times so I joined boxing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very difficult because then I just couldn\u2019t take the banter of the older boys. I was 13 and must have been under four foot.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019d pick me up, chuck me in the bin, put the lid on and I\u2019d get out and start fighting. But they were a bit too strong for me \u2013 big lads!<\/p>\n \u201cI thought \u2018yeah, one day I will defend myself\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s how it started.<\/p>\n \u201cI loved the training. They\u2019d beat me up and I\u2019d come back and learn more. Eventually, I managed to overcome them and take over.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t give up easily and I like to win. So I always trained to the top and that got me there.\u201d<\/p>\n Standing at 5\u20191, Ampofo would go on to be nicknamed \u201cThe Pocket Battlerocket\u201d in his professional career.<\/p>\n A chance encounter whilst still an amateur nearly saw Ampofo switch allegiances to his country of birth when the Ghanaian boxing team were in London ahead of the 1988 Olympics.<\/p>\n \u201cThey came over to England to spar with the GB team and I just happened to be in the GB team as a sparring partner.<\/p>\n \u201cI did ask the Ghana coach if they would take me in to box for Ghana, but they couldn\u2019t as they already had a good flyweight.\u201d<\/p>\n Within a year of his first professional fight in 1990, Ampofo was the British flyweight champion.<\/p>\n Seventeen of his 28 fights would be title contests, with his fourth and final shot at a world title coming in 2002 when Johnny Armour defended his World Boxing Union\u2019s bantamweight title.<\/p>\n Hours later, Ampofo had retired.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not regret, but I thought I deserved to definitely have one (world title) \u2013 I mean, now I can never call myself a former world champion,\u201d he said with a hint of remorse.<\/p>\n Yet over the past 20 years, Ampofo has risen to master another profession, taking great joy in every step of a journey that would have made that little boy in Kumasi in 1970 and his family incredibly proud.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable, it\u2019s shocking,\u201d he surmised. \u201cWhen I got off the plane at Heathrow, I\u2019m a little African kid, I\u2019m just coming to learn car mechanics and go back to Ghana.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was my intention, to go back when I was 17 and work but obviously boxing went on, and now I\u2019m here (on the farm). Everything I did in boxing, I absolutely loved it. I\u2019d do it all over again if I got another chance.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Francis](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/_126812091_mediaitem126812090.jpg\")
Defending himself at school<\/h3>\n
\u201cI\u2019d do it all over again\u201d<\/h3>\n
![\"Francis](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/_126812195_mediaitem126812194.jpg\")