BOXING fans and enthusiasts desirous of witnessing next month’s battle between Guyana’s cruiserweight and heavyweight champion Kurt Bess and Barbados’ WBC/CABOFE heavyweight champion Shawn Cox, will not be able to witness it live on their television sets. According to president of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) one of the coordinators of the monthly ProAm Friday Night Fights (FNF) Peter Abdool, a hard and drastic decision had to be made when it comes to live broadcast of the bouts.
“In the beginning, we promised boxing fans in Guyana that we will take the fights to them, meeting them in the comforts of their living room and we have done just that. But at the same time, persons realised they can enjoy the fights from their home, hence they stop attending same at the venue live.”
Abdool was at the time addressing the media at his office and said this has hurt not only the GBBC, but their list of sponsors as well and after careful consideration following a meeting with their sponsor, the GBBC in collaboration with the GABA decided to pull the plug when it relates to live coverage of the FNF.
Abdool, who also heads the World Boxing Council’s Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE), lauded the National Communications Network and the media for the role they played in ensuring the monthly FNF were a success story.
“NCN’s work in filming and broadcasting the monthly FNF has been great, while at the same time, the GBBC has managed to get the media fully involved in assisting with the promotion of the fights, as we seek to take it to another level.
The sponsors of the cards are also interested in taking the FNF to another level, but while they are doing that, they expect some level of mileage so what we have decided to do is cut the live broadcast and encourage the fans to come back out to witness them live, while a recorded broadcast with advertising breaks depicting the sponsor’s products, will be shown at a later date,” stated Abdool.
He added that close to G$12M has changed hands through the FNF to date, with boxer’s purse, managers’ handling fees and even hotel accommodation for some overseas fighters, being taken care of, while stating that the GBBC would like to see more money being filtered down to the boxers in the future.
“The only way we can do so, is to have the crowds back at the venue for the FNF in person and like I said, the decision to cut the live broadcast of the fights on NCN was a hard and drastic one we had to take, since the return of the fans in person would see an increase in boxer’s purse.”
The CABOFE head will be heading to Las Vegas next month, where he will be attending the WBC’s Annual Convention from December 10 to 17, where several issues will be raised.
Abdool hinted at having every CABOFE title fought for in due course, starting with the Cox/Bess encounter, since the WBC intends to make CABOFE an active arm in their development of boxing.
Touching on his Board’s partnership with the GABA who received close to G$1M from the GBBC during the course of last year, Abdool said it has been growing from strength to strength, with the GBBC seeing their mandate – which is to feed the professional ranks through the GABA, develop gradually.
“When you look at some of our FNFs of late, you would see some boxers who just around last year were fighting in the amateur ranks, making their professional debut and while that is a great sign for the GBBC, it is still our aim to see the ranks within the GABA develop.
When we spoke with some of the officials within  GABA, they told us that progress has been made within their ranks, citing many fighters as example and with that in mind, both the GABA and the GBBC are looking at having that elusive Olympic gold medal brought back to these shores in the not-too-distant future,” said Abdool.