THE boxing community in Linden, especially the members of the ‘Pocket Rocket’ boxing gym in Victory Valley, Wismar, Linden, are mourning the loss of boxing stalwart, 27-year-old, Kellon Peters.
Peters, who was also a ‘marack man’, lost his life horribly on Sunday, when a pit located in the mining backdams of Mahdia, caved in on him.

Orlon Rogers, known as ‘Pocket Rocket’, the founder of the boxing gym of which Peters was a member, described his death as a great loss to the sport since he was one of the best boxers in the mining town.
Peters started his boxing career at the age of 9 and had his first competition at the age of 10, in 1997.

“He fought for all the Under-16 and the junior competitions in Guyana. He was the intermediate champion, he won the National open championship and he represented Linden extremely well.
There were two great brothers who used to be fighting in Georgetown, Dexter and Michael Jordon, and Peters was the first person to defeat both of them,” Rogers said.

The coach related that it saddened him that such great talent had to turn to pork-knocking, when boxing should have been his livelihood since Peters dedicated his life to the sport. He became a pork-knocker about seven years ago after realising that boxing was not paying the bills.

“There wasn’t much into boxing, he had wanted to turn pro (professional) but due to fights not there and the boxing board not having much promotions in terms of boxing, he decided he will make a different turn and go and do pork-knocking work,” Rogers related.
The boxing coach was in the process of gearing Peters to becoming professional next year but unfortunately, he met an untimely death.

“He had a passion for boxing, he was a very passionate young man when it comes to boxing, I think if there were more competitions and so forth, he would have been Guyana’s lightweight champion, because he had always wanted to go far. If there weren’t certain stumbling blocks in his way, I think he would have probably had a medal for Guyana at the last two Olympics.”

Rogers is calling on the relevant sporting authorities to push more into boxing so that passionate boxers, such as Peters, can live off the sport and not have to gravitate to other means of employment that can be deemed dangerous.