FOLLOWING the successful hosting of its latest card dubbed ‘Firestorm’ at the Princess Hotel one week ago, the wheels within the matchmaking department of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) have gone back to work, this time organising the 28th edition of their ProAm Friday Night Fights.

The card will punch off on Friday, May 31 at the Sophia Exhibition Complex auditorium for the first time, due to the unavailability of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and will see Barbados’ Shawn ‘The Sniper’ Cox, who will be fighting out of Guyana for the first time, in an epic rematch with this country’s heavyweight champion Kurt Bess.
Two fighters, Laured Stewart and Romeo Norville, will be making their debut on the card, while Dexter Gonsalves will be making his debut in Guyana as a professional fighter.
However, boxing fans, who are expected to throng the venue and show their support to this event, will be anxious to see Bess’ performance against the man who knocked out both Bess and Guyana’s former World Boxing Association light heavyweight champion, Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite.
Bess has had a poor start to his career, losing to Trinidadian Kirston Manswell, followed by losses to Mitchell Rogers and Anthony Augustine, while under the wings of James Walcott at the Harpy Eagles Boxing Gym.
He (Bess) then decided to move over to the Andrew ‘Six Head’ Lewis Boxing Gym under the tutelage of George ‘Canchie’ Oprecht and since then, has improved leaps and bounds avenging his losses to Rogers and Augustine in grand style.
His decisive victories over Rogers and Cleveland Fraser for the local light/heavyweight and heavyweight title respectively are attestations of his immense strides and he boasted of a respectable 9-5-4 record with two major titles and a reputation as a fearsome puncher, before facing Cox on December 17 two years ago.
Quizzed on his expectations for the upcoming clash, Bess said Cox’s words about there being no Guyanese boxer to give him a strong challenge motivated him to take up the mantle to face him once again, since he also wants to avenge that humiliating loss.
“First of all, I am not happy with the way things went the first time we met, so I am eager to go out there and make amends. Added to that, he (Cox) has been saying that there is no Guyanese fighter worthy enough of beating him and that is not true.
“It’s not that we are not good enough to defeat him, but we were making the mistakes against him and he, like any other boxer, capitalised on those mistakes and came away with the victory, but I intend to correct that this time around,” stated Bess.
When asked what he will be doing against Cox to make amends for his and his fellow countrymen’s losses, Bess refused to disclose his game plan, saying it will be visible when they meet on  May 31.
“I am not going to say what I will be doing to come away with the win this time around, but what I do know is persons who are interested in this fight, need to be at the Sophia Exhibition Centre auditorium on May 31, since I will be aiming to be the first Guyanese to defeat ‘The Sniper’ and I am confident this time around.”
Cox’s record reads 17-2, with 16 of his wins coming inside the distance, including his stunning first round TKO over a hapless Braithwaite, who later suffered a unanimous decision loss at the hands of Trinidad and Tobago-based Guyanese Cleveland Fraser.
Of his 17 wins, seven were recorded against fighters from Guyana, making his record against Guyanese pugilists an impressive 7-0, with five of those wins, being recorded at the CASH – Bess’ bout being for the well known World Boxing Council/Caribbean Boxing Federation heavyweight title.
However, Cox relinquished his rights to compete in the lucrative WBC Championship Cup, when he signed on to face Dennis Lebedev for the interim WBA cruiserweight title, for which he suffered a second-round TKO.
He rebounded to record a fourth-round TKO victory over Guyana’s cruiserweight champion and Bess’ buddy Kwesi ‘Lightning Struck Assassin’ Jones in February of this year, making his upcoming contest against Bess an interesting one indeed.
Stewart had decided to turn pro two months ago, but unforeseen circumstances prevented that from happening, but will be going up against Anson Greene in a welterweight encounter, with Norville taking on Eversley Browne in a middleweight contest.
Deryck Richmond and Jermain King will clash in a junior middleweight bout, while Gonsalves will take on former national lightweight champion, Barbados-based Guyanese Revlon Lake, for the national junior lightweight crown.