STORMY affair can be anticipated tonight when the seventh edition of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC)/Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA)/Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport-organised ProAm fights punches off at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH).
Former amateur champion Mandessa Moses, coming off a convincing win over Margaret ‘Chico’ Walcott, will be matching gloves with the much heavier Sharon Warde from Linden in the main bout which is a catch-weight encounter over four rounds.
Judging from the pre-fight clash of words between the two female pugilists, this bout should be a crowd-pleaser as both fighters are set on proving their superiority over each other.
Prior to facing Walcott, Moses had defeated Kwinda Rogers while she pummelled Alicia Marques into oblivion from the sport as she racked up a 3-0 record on the ProAm cards and even expressed confidence by stating Warde does not stand a chance against her.
But Warde is no pushover and should be looking to use her weight and ring experience to vast advantage tonight.
“I witnessed the ‘Chico’/Moses bout and to my mind, ‘Chico’ did nothing to represent herself in that bout, maybe because Mandessa was moving a lot which made her a difficult target to hit.
“I don’t care how much she (Moses) moves, as I am prepared to go after her. She asked me to come and be prepared to fight so I am doing so. I am a different kettle of fish and as long as Christ is on this vessel, I am not afraid of the storm,” stated Warde.
Lightweight Mark Austin made a fairy tale start to his professional career with unanimous decision victories over Cecil Smith and Shawn Pile in the ProAm fights and will be looking to get past Errol Trotman in the opening professional bout on the card.
It was Trotman who issued a challenge in the second round of the Austin/Pile bout, declaring that this fight will be an easy one adding, that he can beat Austin and Pile one after the other.
It must be noted though, that Trotman has lost six of his professional fights while the other one was a drawn encounter and judging from Austin’s last outing in the ring against Pile who was preparing to fight for a CABOFFE title, he is not ready to surrender his clean slate.
Therefore Trotman, who has not fought since 2007 will have to shake the rust and dust off his gloves to defeat the sharp and upcoming boxer that Austin has proved himself to be so far.
Theophilus ‘Blue’ King and Leon ‘The Lion’ Gilkes will meet in a rematch in the heavyweight division, with King looking to redeem himself after he felt he won their first match-up.
While Gilkes has quite an unflattering record, he has a win over King and he will be looking to rebound after suffering an upset defeat to Anthony Augustine, who went on to defeat Linden’s Kurt Best.
To round out the professional roster, Dexter Marques who is a former national bantamweight champion will take on Rudolph Fraser and many fans, expected to fill the venue tonight, will be looking for an improved performance from Fraser.
According to president of the GBBC Peter Abdool, the skill level of both Marques and Fraser will be tested, with the latter having a brief performance on the first edition of the ProAm card, when he suffered a first-round knockout to Troy Lewis.
Marques’ only defeat in his six-fight professional career came at the hands of two–time national bantamweight champion Leon ‘Hurry Up’ Moore, but he picked himself up with an unanimous decision win against Hewley Robinson last year.
At the press conference held in the studios of NCN Channel 11, Abdool said the purpose of the ProAm card is being achieved month after month.
“The last six cards have been very qualitative and from all indications will continue to improve. We are very grateful for the support as we aim to build and promote boxing not only the professional side of it, but also the amateur as well.
Our cards have achieved what we wanted to do, which is keep the boxers active as well as draw support from corporate Guyana. When we started, one of the hiccups was the number of fighters available to get a card off the ground, but now we have the fighters and not many cards,” stated Abdool.
He further stated that the GBBC will be looking at another avenue wherein they can keep the boxers on their roster active, along with the ProAm cards. He thanked the Ministry of Agriculture for coming on board.
“As we are all aware, sports in Guyana need as much support as possible and with that in mind, I would like to say thanks to the Ministry of Agriculture for coming on board and joining our list of sponsors which includes Ansa McAl, Courts (Guyana) Inc., Giftland OfficeMax, Guyoil and Digicel.
The Ministry has not only come on board for this card, but has pledged their unflinching support to the next four ProAm fight cards for the year and hopefully, we can have them on board with us again next year,” said Abdool.
On the amateur side of the bout, national coach Terrence Poole concurred with Abdool, by stating amateur boxers are looking forward to the ProAm cards, as they wish to showcase their talent to the boxing public.
Keeve Allicock will face Central American and Caribbean (CAC) games bronze medallist Dexter Jordan in the opening bout, followed by the Mervin Ajeday versus Nandkumar Singh rematch, with the latter, who has been a crowd-pleaser since his introduction to this segment of boxing, looking to avenge his loss.
Bert Braithwaite and Damion Ross will clash in a welterweight bout, with Braithwaite anxious to showcase to the public the skill that booked him a place on the CAC squad.
The final bout on the amateur side of the card will feature another CAC bronze medallist in the Guyana Defence Force’s Devon Boatswain facing Kelsie George in a middleweight clash that is expected to put the crowd on their feet.
Admission to the venue is $500 while those who are unable to make their way to CASH on Homestretch Avenue can witness the action live on NCN Channel 11 from 20:00 h.