By Eric Rineer

Nigerian boxer Daniel “The Prophet” Attah says he’s itching to get back into the ring.

“It’s my life,” said Attah, a super featherweight who hasn’t fought since May 2004. “This is what I do. This is what brought me all the way from Africa.

“I’m ready to sign with any promoter,” he said. “I am going to prove myself.”

Attah, a southpaw who represented Nigeria at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, said his inactivity is related to legal issues he has finally resolved with his former promoter, Murad Muhammad.

He signed an official letter of release from Muhammad’s New Jersey-based M & M Sports Inc. on May 6.

Attah, 28, hit a peak in his professional career on Aug. 3, 2002, when he battled feared puncher Acelino Freitas to the final bell of a championship bout. The Brazilian superstar defeated him by unanimous decision but Attah’s stock rose from that fight.

Then Attah ran into a slump: He dropped two of his next three bouts and slipped into obscurity in the boxing world. One of those two losses came at the hands of top contender Nate “Galaxy Warrior” Campbell, who beat him in a box-off for the No. 2 spot in the IBF rankings.

He rebounded from the Campbell fight, but barely. He out-pointed lowly regarded James Baker in an eight-round contest on May 27, 2004, in Washington, D.C.

Attah, 22-3-1 (8 KOs) said he trains six days a week at Round One Boxing & Fitness Center in Capitol Heights, MD. The prizefighter resides in Reston, Va., in the Washington, D.C., area.

Darrell Faulkner, who serves as Attah’s adviser, described his client as an “upstanding young man.”

Faulkner, development director at Computer Associates in Herndon, Va., said he met Attah about two years ago at work: Attah is a security guard at a daycare center in the Computer Associates building.

“I first saw him in the parking lot,” Faulkner said. “He was working out shadowboxing.”

Faulkner said Attah is hungry for a shot to re-establish himself.

“Daniel trains every day,” Faulkner said. “At minimum, he runs five miles and shadowboxes.

“He’s showing signs of depression. It’s a never-ending story of false promises that dissolves.”