‘Hands of Stone’ looking to maintain dominance over Lake
… Layne showers praise on Abdool
BARBADOS’ Miguel ‘Hands of Stone’ Antoine will take on Barbados-based Guyanese Revlon Lake for the World Boxing Council (WBC) Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) super lightweight title, Saturday night, at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. Also expected to do battle that same night when an unprecedented five titles will be at stake are: former WBC cruiserweight champion Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite who will face Barbados Shawn ‘The Sniper’ Cox, Elton ‘Coolie Bully’ Dharry up against Selwyn Lett, Edmond De Clou who will match gloves with Kevin Placide and Dexter Marques who will challenge Orland Rogers.
But the 24-year-old Antoine (16-0-1) who has fought and defeated Lake (6-5-2) twice promises to maintain his supremacy over his opponent. Meanwhile his manager and promoter Samuel Layne showered praise on president of both the Guyana Boxing Board of Control and CABOFE Peter Abdool.
“It is good to be back in Guyana once again. This is like our home away from home as you can say, as we probably know almost every street in town by now; the boxing public knows us as we have been here quite a few times for the past couple of years, thanks to Mr Abdool the new CABOFE president.
“He has been doing an exceptionally great job and he has created a lot of stir, excitement and activity for boxers in the Caribbean lately, with this upcoming card baring testimony, since it will have five CABOFE titles at stake,” said Layne.
Layne added that Guyana is the most active country when it comes to boxing in the English-speaking Caribbean, with boxers being given lots of opportunity to get a chance at the WBC/CABOFE titles in the various divisions and later get into the world ranking.
“Now that some of them will become champions, fighters from the eight weight divisions will get an opportunity to compete on the world scene in the upcoming WBC Cup and this is certainly a fantastic job that is being done by Mr Abdool for boxers in the Caribbean.”
But while much of Wednesday afternoon’s press conference was centred on the heavyweight clash between Braithwaite and Cox, Antoine in his soft tone of voice thanked CABOFE for giving him the opportunity to do battle for the title, through which he is looking to make Barbados and the Caribbean at large, very proud.
“Lake is not an easy opponent to come up against, but I am looking to win this fight. I have been involved in boxing since I was eight years old and I must say that not many persons had this opportunity at even such a young age and being presented with it now, I am ready to take advantage of it,” stated Antoine.
On the other hand, Lake who defeated Mark Austin to take the national lightweight title last June, believes he has learnt enough in the trade over the years to turn around the fortunes when he faces Antoine tomorrow night.
“When I first faced him, my corner told me he had never gone past five rounds so I was trying my best to take him there, since I know to myself that in the latter rounds of my fight, I step up the pace and take the attack to my opponents.
During that time, he backed me into a corner and as I was doing my best to get out of it, I held onto him to which the referee stepped in and called a halt to proceedings, much to the surprise of my cornermen and myself.”
He added, “This time it would be different as I went back to the drawing board and studied him. I wanted to give Austin a rematch for the national lightweight title, but he is not interested in that so I have to turn my attention to Antoine and come Saturday (tomorrow) night, boxing fans will be seeing a different Revlon Lake, especially knowing what is at stake here.”
Admission to the venue is $3 000 for ringside, $1 500 for stands and children under 12 years old, $500 while the GBBC wishes to inform the boxing public that there will be no live broadcast of the action which punches off at 20:00hrs, on NCN Channel 11.
The weigh-in takes place at the Regency Suites at 19:00hrs tonight, prior to which, there will be a live press conference on NCN Channel 11 at 14:00hrs today.