- Maiyegun died on Monday at his base in Vienna, Austria at 83, a source close to the family disclosed.
Nojim Maiyegun, a former Nigerian boxer and the nation’s first-ever Olympic medalist, has passed away.
Maiyegun died on Monday at his base in Vienna, Austria at 83, a source close to the family disclosed.
A close long-standing associate of the legendary boxer, Rudolfine F Soultan, confirmed his death in a Facebook post on Monday.
“My Jimmy died. I can’t say more about this right now because it’s just horrible. The day after tomorrow, we would have been together for 17 years,” the post reads.
Maiyegun, who became visually impaired a few years ago, was reportedly battling an unnamed illness for a couple of months.
He was the first Nigerian to win an Olympic gold medal.
Maiyegun was 23 when he won a bronze medal in the light-heavyweight boxing category at Tokyo 1964.
In the second round of the competition, he defeated Great Britain’s William Robinson in just one minute and 59 seconds — a remarkable feat in amateur boxing.
He defeated Tom Bogs of Denmark in the quarter-final before losing to France’s Joseph Gonzalez in the semi-final.
Maiyegun and Poland’s Józef Grzesiak settled for the bronze.
Two years later, in 1966, he won another bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.
Maiyegun left Nigeria in 1971 to begin a professional boxing career.
He fought 16 times and won 12 — 10 of them by knockouts.
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