ALTHOUGH Keevin Allicock was knocked out in the round-of-32 of the Men’s Featherweight Division at the Tokyo Olympics, he came in for high praises from Steve Ninvalle, president of the Guyana Boxing Association.

“Keevin gave of his best and that’s what we asked him for,” Ninvalle told Chronicle Sport yesterday.

Judges Beau Campbell (USA), Radoslav Simon (Slovakia), Susann Kopke (Germany) Mansur Muhiddinov (Tajikistan) and Nelka Shiromala Thampu (Sri Lanka), all scored the fight in favour of Alexy de la Cruz of the Dominican Republic over Allicock.

The decision did not sit too well with seasoned boxing pundits, with many calling the fight in favour of Allicock.

“The judges would have seen or would have had in their opinion, that the boxer from the Dominican Republic won; that is something that we have to accept,” Ninvalle opined.
According to Ninvalle, “The good thing is that Keevin would have learned a lot from being in this Olympics and the other good thing coming out of it is that he’s ready and willing to face another Olympics.”

Meanwhile, Ninvalle, speaking on the future of his most-prized boxer, pointed out that “Keevin has given me his word that he will be staying over in the Amateur ranks for the next Olympics. He will be nurtured as an Amateur fighter and my plan is to have him and other boxers exposed to the high level of competition in the world, so that his next occasion at the Olympics, he will be much better than this one.”

“I take my hat off to Keevin and his coach Sebert Blake. I think they’ve done a lot of work and we need to commend them; his focus and how tenacious he was in remaining in his training and I was assured that the next time we will have better results,” Ninvalle said.

The local boxing association president said, “There are no losers here. Keevin has learned a lot and the experience will do good for him and Guyana.”