GUYANA’S Pan American Games representative Keevin ‘Lightning’ Allicock will be amongst the big names expected for next weekend’s Terrence Alli National Open, which is billed for the National Gymnasium.

The Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) aims to send a large team to the Caribbean Boxing Championships this year and will use the November 1-3 event to select the team.

Normally this event is held later in November, but according to GBA president Steve Ninvalle the team will have a lengthy encampment before travelling for the December 4-9 regional competition, which is scheduled for Trinidad.

Guyana will expect stiff opposition this year since the regional body decided to invite four Latin American nations, including powerhouse Cuba, who have produced several world and Olympic champions. Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are also expected to field boxers for the event.

Ninvalle said that next weekend’s competition would see over 50 boxers in action and it will be the first time since February (when he roughed up his T&T opponent at the Patrick Ford Memorial) that the 20-year-old Caribbean bantamweight champion Allicock would fight at home.

It might take some time again for the ace boxer to fight on local soil, since according to Ninvalle, plans are being worked out to have him travel overseas for specialised training.

In addition to Allicock, Caribbean champions middleweight ‘Dynamite’ Desmond Amsterdam and lightweight Jamal Eastman, known as ‘The Beast from Berbice’ will be on show. Eastman won the Caribbean title with a single punch that dropped his Trinidadian opponent last year in Guyana.

An added attraction to next week’s competition is former Caribbean Champion light welterweight Colin ‘Superman’ Lewis who is likely to compete.

The Guyana Defence Force boxers are the reigning champions of the National Open.

Action punches off nightly at 19:00hrs.

Entrance fee is $500 for stands and $1 000 for ringside.