Tiwa Savage Accepts Teni’s ₦1.5bn Boxing Challenge

Afrobeats star Tiwa Savage has given a clear, three-word reply to a playful boxing challenge from fellow singer Teni, turning a light-hearted social-media rant into the latest talking point in Nigeria’s growing celebrity boxing scene.

Teniola Atinuke Apata, known simply as Teni, posted a video on Instagram on Friday, 2 October, in which she called out the “Somebody’s Son” singer while discussing the earnings of Nigerian entertainers and the expensive cars some male artistes drive.

Speaking with characteristic energy, Teni proposed a bout and floated a hypothetical purse of ₦1.5 billion.

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“Let’s fight, Tiwa Savage and me. Mummy, I will beat you till you enter bush. Me that’s is angry, I wouldn’t even look at Jamal’s face. I will cut my eyes. One, one billion. How much them dey buy all these cars? If they pay us N1.5 billion, can I buy a Bugatti? Make we first start from there.

Mama, make we fight. Tiwa, I beat you, then sing ‘My Darling’ for you,” she said.

The comic promise to serenade her opponent after the fight softened the bravado. Tiwa Savage, mother of one and one of the most established voices in Afrobeats, responded directly in the comments with the terse instruction: “Pick a date.”

Fans immediately treated the exchange as an unofficial acceptance. No promoter, contract, venue or official purse has been announced, and both sides have so far kept the tone playful. The challenge nonetheless arrives at a moment when celebrity boxing is gaining real traction in Nigeria.

Only days earlier, on 1 October, Big Brother Naija winner Phyna (Josephina Otabor) knocked out actress Nkechi Blessing in Lagos in what organisers billed as the country’s first major female celebrity bout. The contest formed part of Balmoral Group Promotions’ Chaos in the Ring series at the Federal Palace Hotel. Phyna collected a reported ₦50 million prize and immediately named Nollywood actress Etinosa Idemudia as her next target. Earlier editions of the same series have featured Portable, Charles Okocha, Speed Darlington and Carter Efe, who defeated Portable by unanimous decision.

Teni, who broke through with “Fargin” and later scored a major hit with “Askamaya,” has long cultivated a bold public persona that extends beyond music. Tiwa Savage, whose catalogue includes “Somebody’s Son” and “My Darling,” remains one of the genre’s most recognisable international figures. Their brief online exchange has now placed two of Afrobeats’ leading female artists at the centre of the celebrity-boxing conversation.

Whether the banter develops into an organised contest remains to be seen. For the moment it stands as another example of how public spats and playful provocations are increasingly finding their way from social media into the ring.