Queen James has a name that easily sets her apart. The world, after all, has heard about King James who authorised an early edition of the Bible. But Queen James is a different proposition altogether. Even Queen has not thought of it that way. She simply bears the name that her father, James, called her. He took one look at his baby girl at birth, and decided that she would be a queen one day, and so he called her Queen.
Queen James could easily pass for a boy. Her pose and carriage suggest that she is a good example of a Tom-boy, passionate as she can get about games that often involve boys and men. In recent times, Queen feels more comfortable wearing boxing gloves. She feels great self-confidence when she trots around an imaginary boxing ring, and begins to trade punches. Even at practice sessions, she sees herself in the ring, swinging at the opponent, determined to win every bout.
Her dream of boxing in a ring came to pass in Yenagoa during the South-South Boxing Tournament which took place from 21 to 30 November 2024. She was registered to fight in the 80kg category, and so she stepped into the ring at the Samson Siasia Stadium, gloves over her fists, and sparred with another female boxer who turned out to be more experienced. Dorothy Bassey, the opponent, won the fight on points, but that was James’ first fight, and it opened her eyes to greater possibilities.
She said: ‘The girl was smart. She was trained, and I wasn’t. I felt somewhat intimidated, but I took courage and traded punches with her, following the instructions of my coach. She won gold. I won silver’.
James took interest in boxing only because her aunt, Belema, took notice of her manly physique, her strong hands, her height, and her winning spirit. Belema was convinced that her niece would make a good boxer if she was trained, and promptly registered her at Team Top Boxing Academy, Yenagoa. Today, Queen James sees herself as an upcoming boxing champion. “I am determined to win medals for my mum, my aunt, my coach, and my state’, says James.
Her coach, Oye Poku, proprietor of Team Top Boxing Academy, is Bayelsa State’s only world-class boxing champion, having won the world heavyweight military boxing title in Germany in times past. He believes Queen will mature into an experienced female boxer, and is taking time to bring out the best in her. To start with, James was the only female boxer in his squad listed for the first Niger Delta Development Commission’s sports festival scheduled for Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, in the first week of April 2025. James competed in the 75kg category.
She takes her training sessions seriously. As early as seven o’clock in the morning, she is out exercising her limbs, jogging, hopping on a skip rope, or simply pounding the unfeeling body of the boxing bag hanging before her, hitting it back and forth with as much force as she can muster. It is the routine practice at Team Top Boxing Academy. The youngest boxers love nothing better than that until coach Poku pairs them together, and begins to shout instructions about upper cuts and jabs and keeping your guard.
James is still a Community Girls Secondary School student in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital. She has a bias for science, and believes that one day she would enroll to read Mechanical Engineering at the Niger Delta University in the fullness of time. Queen is a full-blooded daughter of Bayelsa State. Her mother, Esther John Nelson, is Nembe. Her father, Didi James, hails from Watchman’s compound, Idema, Ogbia local government area.
For many days, James looked forward to representing Bayelsa in the 75kg female boxing category during this year’s edition of the National Sports Festival in Ogun State. She made it to the tournament in Abeokuta and returned on 30 May 2025, with a silver medal for Bayelsa State, the outcome of an intensive boxing bout with her opponent in the blue corner.
The reception for James when she returned that night was loud. Everyone along Redeemed Glory Road, Agudama, came out to celebrate her victory. Her medal dangling around her neck, Queen went round thanking everyone for cheering her up. She is expected to have a special handshake with Governor Douye Diri, and a place at the state Sports Council.
