ONCE again, the Peter Abdool-steward Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC), in collaboration with its budding list of sponsors, will seek to whet the appetite of local boxing fans, when Firestorm punches off tonight from 20:00hrs at the Princess Hotel, Providence.

Yesterday morning, Jamaica’s Sakima Mullings and Venezuela’s Raphael Hernandez paid a courtesy call on

Venezuela’s Ambassador to Guyana Her Excellency, Reina Margarita Arratia Diaz and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony.

Abdool expressed heartfelt gratitude to Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee and his staff, who worked overtime to ensure both Hernandez and Mullings, along with their technical team, reached Guyana last Thursday morning, following visa issues.
“I am very happy that we can have this quality of fight here in Guyana. I think the boxing board over the years has been building for an event like this. They have been having Friday Night Fights, so the next logical thing was to take it to this level, where they will be having more international boxers coming to Guyana,” stated Dr Anthony.
Dr Anthony said the way his Ministry has been supporting boxing, including the FNF and amateur boxing, speaks for itself since they have been holding clinics at the Andrew ‘Six Head’ Lewis gym under the guidance of the Cuban coach.
“I am sure that once our boxers train and study their opponents, with most of them fighting on a regular basis, will do well in their respective bouts tonight, even though their opponents are worthy ones.’
Mullings will be doing battle with Howard ‘Battersea Bomber’ Eastman for the World Boxing Council/Caribbean Boxing Federation (WBC?CABOFE) welterweight title in the main supporting bout, while Hernandez will face Guyana’s featherweight and lightweight and WBC/CABOFE super lightweight champion Clive Atwell for the WBC/CABOFE featherweight title.
Mullings, a former Commonwealth Boxing Council Caribbean Zone middleweight champion with a record that reads 11-1 (7 KOs), said he is here to do battle for the title even though he is in Eastman’s backyard.
“When it comes to boxing, everyone knows about Eastman and he is no secret since we know what he has done and what he is capable of, based on his track record. With that in mind, everything would be in his favour, except for age, which is in my favour.”
Added to that, “I don’t think he has the will to win, while I posses that will and I am looking to win this encounter tonight, even though Eastman has the ability to win fights based on his experience, I will be coming into his backyard to defeat him and take the title,” expressed a confident Mullings at the press conference.
In reply, the 46-year-old Eastman said, “I am looking forward to this bout. I have been preparing for this fight a lot and he is in my backyard looking to take a title away from me. I don’t wish to say much, but come fight night I will be showcasing the reason I earned the name ‘Battersea Bomber’ to the boxing public.”
Atwell is a Dominican Republic-based Guyanese and dating back to June 2012, has been in the squared jungle five times, disposing of all his opponents inside the distance, with ease, including Trinidad and Tobago’s ultimate warrior Prince Lee-Isidore.
“I’m a man on a mission. I love lots of money and anybody who is trying to stop me from achieving that goal is a threat and right now, Hernandez is a threat to me and I will have to deal with it in the way I know how to do so,” stated Atwell whose record reads 9-0-1 to Hernandez’ 15-3-2.
Hernandez did not view such remarks and even Atwell’s accomplishments in his last five fights as a threat, saying “This is boxing and we all knocked out somebody at some point and time in our career. Knockouts happen so that’s nothing to me, what matters most is winning this title Saturday night (tonight).”
Gladwin Dorway (4-0, 4 KOs) and Mark Austin (8-5-1) will do battle for the national junior middleweight title, as will Elton ‘The Bully’ Dharry (12-5-1) who will face up to Orland ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers (5-15-0) in a trilogy, this time with the bantamweight title at stake.
The opening fight on the professional segment of the card, which has two amateur fights, pits Syria’s Mahmoud ‘The Extractor’ Loul who made an impressive debut on last month’s ‘Night of Champions 11’, with a stunning second round TKO victory over Patrick Boston, taking on Derick Richmond in a four-round super middleweight contest.
Admission to the venue is VIP $10 000, Ringside $5 000 and regular seating $2 500 and judging from the words of confidence from all the pugilists involved in the title fights last Thursday at the press briefing, a Firestorm is certainly brewing for tonight.