THE combination of Keevin Allicock and the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) fighting in and outside of the ‘square circle’ has resulted in the National and Caribbean bantamweight champion grabbing a place at the next Pan Am Games scheduled for Peru.

GBA head honcho, Steve Ninvalle, confirmed yesterday that Allicock has qualified for the Games despite controversially losing by a walkover in a quarter-final match of the Pan Am Qualifiers held in Nicaragua.

In a statement to the media, Ninvalle revealed; “I was informed verbally by a high-ranking and usually reliable official of the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) the way was paved for Allicock to participate at the Games. This is good news as our reason for being in Nicaragua is to qualify. We are still awaiting official correspondence.”

The talented Allicock was set to fight Alexy De Cruz of Dominican Republic on Monday but was prevented by Technical Delegate (Fight Supervisor) Rapheal Vega who claimed that the Guyanese was wearing an inappropriate coloured vest.

Vega deemed the colour of the Allicock’s vest inappropriate even though the International Technical Officer (ITO) and referee found nothing wrong with the garment.

Allicock, who was scheduled to box out of the red corner,  entered the ring one hour after being cleared by the ITO but was then challenged by the Technical Delegate and later given one minute to change the red and black vest.

A determined Allicock, part of a four-man Guyana team in Nicaragua, managed to change but upon his return to the ring lost by way of walkover. The Guyanese camp in Nicaragua immediately filed a protest but was unsuccessful in getting the ruling overturned.

Team coach Terrence Poole soon after contacted Ninvalle who filed another protest with both the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) and world governing body AIBA.  Ninvalle pointed out that the new rules of AIBA (48.3.4) dictate that a boxer can compete in either those of the corners or in his national colours, Red and Black are colours of Guyana’s national flag.

Ninvalle, a recently elected vice-president of AMBC described the Technical Delegate’s decision as unjust, unreasonable, unsportsmanlike excessive unwarranted and that which goes against the grain of what the new AIBA is promoting.

He further disclosed; “We are happy that one of our boxers has made it to the Games but it does not stop there. There is a need to know what decision has been taken on the outcome of the fight and what sanctions will be handed to the defaulting Technical Delegate, hence we will await official word from both AIBA and AMBC”.