APPROXIMATELY five months ago, Mark Austin hinted at having a shot for the vacant national lightweight title while preparing for his four-round battle against Jermaine King and at 14:00hrs today, he will be affixing his signature to a contract in the boardroom of Abdool and Abdool Insurance to face Barbados-based Revlon Lake for that title. This epic and heated battle will take place over a distance of 12 rounds on Friday June 24 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), where the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC), in collaboration with the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA), will host its 16th monthly ProAm boxing extravaganza.
The fruits of the ProAm bouts were visible last month when the GBBC, with the amicable support from corporate Guyana and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, held its first professional card dubbed RAMPAGE at the same venue.
Out of same, USA-based Guyanese Lennox ‘Too Sharp’ Allen and Elton ‘Coolie Bully’ Dharry were crowned the World Boxing Council (WBC)/ Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) super middleweight and bantamweight champions respectively.
Allen scored a unanimous decision victory over light heavyweight champion Kwesi ‘Lightning Struck’ Jones, while Dharry recorded a commanding seventh round technical knockout over Dexter ‘The Kid’ Marques.
Kurt ‘The Best’ Bess also stunned then-national heavyweight champion Mitchell Rogers for the second successive time, to add that title to his national cruiserweight belt which he won the previous month, following another stunning fourth-round knockout victory over Barbados-based Cleveland Fraser.
Austin last stepped into the squared circle in February of this year, where he suffered his first loss to another Barbados-based Guyanese, Miguel Antoine, when the two met for the Commonwealth Zonal light welterweight title.
Prior to that fight, he has fought and defeated boxers of the calibre of Cecil Smith who can be described as a local journeyman in the fistic sport, Earl Trotman, Shawn Pile and Lake, albeit in four-round encounters, while his intense battle with Clive Atwell was deemed a draw to leave his record at 5-1-1.
No doubt, Lake will be looking to avenge his loss and at the same time win the national title, but Austin has displayed in his short career to date, the signs of hunger for success hence boxing fans can expect a thrilling encounter at the CASH.
Denny ‘Deadly’ Dalton last fought in June 2010, when he suffered a unanimous defeat at the hands of USA-based Guyanese Rawle Frank, but he will be looking to put that defeat past him when he faces Trinidad and Tobago-based Joel McRae in a super middleweight bout.
Simeon ‘Candyman’ Hardy and Eversly Browne will meet in a catchweight encounter while Ray Sandiford will be looking to take his professional record to 2-0 when he faces another local journeyman in Orland ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers in another catchweight bout.