Dalton/Camacho Jr encounter …
MINISTER of Sport Dr Frank Anthony believes that tomorrow’s historic boxing card, labelled ‘Deadly Encounters’ by Bris ‘O’ Promotions, should be seen as more than just boxing since it is up-keeping the rich boxing tradition of Guyana, and Guyana is now capable of staging world class events. Guyana’s ‘Deadly’ Denny Dalton and Hector ‘Machito’ Camacho Jr, will cover 12 rounds for the vacant World Boxing Foundation (WBF) Middleweight Intercontinental Championship as the headline card of the night that will also see Shondel Alfred defend her WIBA Bantamweight title against Corrine De Groot at the Princess Hotel and Casino.
Also featuring on the card is Guyana’s first female world champion, Gwendolyn ‘The Stealth Bomber’ O’Neal and Veronica Blackman as the two vie for the vacant Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) Heavyweight title.
The boxers and their entourage paid a courtesy call on Minister Anthony at his Main Street Georgetown Office where he passed on words of encouragement and asked that the event be kept in high spirit and showmanship.
“Over the last two years, we have seen an exponential rise of boxing in Guyana and this ministry has been very supportive of boxing both at the amateur and professional levels and everyone knows that Guyana has a very fine tradition of boxing.
“Somewhere along the line that has demolished a bit but I’m very optimistic that with what I’ve seen over the last two years, that we’re going to be restoring that tradition and even surpassing it, so this event we should see it in that context, with that enthusiasm for boxing in Guyana and reliving that spirit,” said Minister Anthony.
The sports minister added that his ministry believes that Guyana has the potential to be the feeding ground for boxing in the Caribbean and with the continuation and execution of the monthly televised Pro-Am boxing card, that objective can be achieved.
“Our ultimate aim is to make Guyana, the Mecca of boxing in the Caribbean and we want to even extend that further a-field, and we think that is within our reach and once we continue to have promoters coming to Guyana and putting on good fights, I’m sure that in a very short time, we will be that Mecca,” the sport minister said.
Bris ‘O’ Promotions headed by Seon Bristol and his affiliates came in for high praise from Anthony, with the Minister declaring that “this is more than boxing, we want people to see that we can stage world class events here – we have done so with other sports like cricket, rugby; soon we’ll be having karate and I can’t see why we can’t do that for boxing so I want this to be that event, to showcase boxing at its highest level in Guyana, so I’m looking forward to June 5 and good sportsman ship”.