The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development says it did not give approval to former boxing champion, Bash Ali, to stage a world fight in Nigeria.
Special Assistant on Media to the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Kola Daniel, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
He said the legal department of the ministry had written to the boxer warning him to desist from peddling false claims about a non-existent approval from the office of the minister for the fight.
Mr Daniel said no such approval was granted by President Muhammadu Buhari contrary to claims by the boxer that the approval was conveyed to him by the office of the minister.
He told Bash Ali to follow due process in his plans to stage the fight.
Bash Ali made history in 1985 as the first World Boxing Federation (WBF) cruiser-weight boxing champion from Africa.
The 63-year-old is seeking to enter the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest boxer to win a world title.
The former boxer, who has not competed professionally for more than a decade, is seeking to take on an unidentified American boxer in a bid to clinch the world record.
