Former Hearts of Oak midfielder Joseph Tagoe known in football circles as Bobby Short has revealed that he was a boxer when his football career was yet to take off.
Joe Tagoe spent three seasons with Hearts of Oak from Accra Great Olympics. He also made a handful of appearances for the Ghana U23 side.
“Boxing I have fought before but with all this I was a footballer that time I haven’t progressed well in football. So there was an Uncle called Akese he is no more he told us we are going to play football in Benin," he said on Dan Kweku Yeboah Show as monitored by Footballghana.com
"When we got there he said we are going to fight boxing and if you don’t fight you will walk to Ghana so you have no option than to fight. If I won a fight there I think boxing would have been my career but because of the beatings I received I said this is not what I want to do. We have a squad and we always play football on a park and we always fight so he (my uncle) has observed us,"
"So when that move came he gathered us to go and play football not knowing we were going to fight boxing. We were about ten or twelve Emmanuel Clottey Joshua Clottey’s senior brother was part when we traveled. Boxing is not what I should do if it was a job I had to do like I will do it but what I saw I said when I reach Ghana and someone tells me to go to a gym God will punish that person. I fought three fights four all I was knocked three the last fight the guy you can see that he was very determined to beat me up,"
"He beat me very well so all the four fights I was disquafiled in the last one because when he was beating me he was about to throw a blow and he landed on my shoulder and I was about to raise him up the referee held him and I was disqualified the guy beat me very well,”