Etinosa Oliha

Etinosa Godwin Oliha (born 13 June 1998) is an Italian professional boxer who competes in the middleweight division. He held the International Boxing Organisation (IBO) world middleweight title from 2023 to 2024.

As of September 2023, he was ranked as the world's 10th best active middleweight by BoxRec.

Early and personal life
Etinosa Oliha was born on 13 June 1998 in Turin to Patricia and Murphy Oliha, both of whom immigrated from Nigeria. When he was five years old, the family moved to Asti. Oliha has an older brother and two older sisters.

After his school education, Oliha completed an apprenticeship as an electrician. He is single and lives in Asti.

Amateur career
At the age of 14, Oliha took part in an event organized by the city where the sports clubs from Asti presented themselves together. Here he came into contact with Skull Boxe Canavesana and Davide Greguoldo. Oliha was thrilled and joined the club, while Greguoldo took over his training. To this day he is a member of the club and Gregualdo is his coach.

In his amateur career, Oliha amassed 59 fights, including 45 wins, 12 losses and two draws. 2016 Italian youth champion. His personal highlight was the gold medal at the Italian championship.

Professional career
Oliha began his professional career at the age of 19. He was and continues to be looked after by his amateur trainer Davide Greguoldo.

On 10 February 2020, he defeated his compatriot Carlo de Novellis and became Italian middleweight champion. It was Oliha's eleventh fight as a professional boxer. He defended the championship against Andrea Roncon and Francesco Lezzi. He then relinquished the title to fight Sofiane Khati for the more valuable International Boxing Organization (IBO) “Mediterranean Middle”. He defeated the Frenchman by retirement in the 5th round.

Agon Sports & Events invited Oliha as a sparring opponent for its middleweight and super middleweight boxers. Oliha convinced the AGON management with his performance and signed a contract with the Berlin boxing promotion in November 2022. In his stable debut on 24 February 2023, he defeated Rafael Amarillas Ortiz and became Intercontinental Middleweight Champion of the WBO.

IBO middleweight champion
Five months later, on 1 July 2023, the IBO's Intercontinental Championship against the Chilean Julio Alamos, originally planned by AGON, was declared a world title fight by the IBO, because the reigning champion Gennady Golovkin had relinquished his world title. Oliha defeated Alamos on points and was thus the Berlin boxing stable's first world title holder. With his victory he also closed the gap between Italian world champions in the upper weight classes. Prior to this, Giovanni De Carolis had been most recently the world title holder of the GBU and WBA, who handed over both titles to Tyron Zeuge in November 2016.

In his first title defense, Oliha faced Faton Vukshinaj on 25 November 2023. He won the bout by unanimous decision.