Coach Blake talks about female participation

FOUR female bouts are Carded on the Bris-O Promotions ‘return of the Scorpion’ Pro-Am boxing extravaganza which is set for June 3 at the National Gymnasium.
Among the female bouts will be the Jackman sisters Alisha and Abiola who will trade punches with a Jamaican and Trinidadian, respectively.
Sebert Blake, who coaches the siblings at the FYF Gym in Albouystown, provided his thoughts on the sisters and female boxing in Guyana.

Blake who quit Boxing at the age of 27 after returning from an unsuccessful Olympic Qualifiers, said that in addition to the Jackman siblings there will a junior female clash between Tafina Barker and Akela Vancooten.

“These two young ladies are very good prospects for the future of female boxing.

One of the worries is getting more females boxers involved and Coach Blake said the President of the GBA wants more females in boxing.

“This is why we want these females to showcase their talent in the ring. One of the young ladies competing is a National U-20 footballer and she is 15 years old. She started boxing from very young but this would be [her] first bout. Because of her ability we wanted to put her in [the] ring to show that Guyana has depth in female boxing,” Blake informed.

“Also, we [GBA] want to encourage other young ladies to come on board and enjoy the sport. This programme that the President has set out has lots of potential to attract a multitude of ladies,” Blake continued.

“The main difficulty with have [sic] boxing in schools starts with the stigma that this sport will have some negative effect on the kids, like getting hit on the head and damaging their brain for life. The sport of boxing can get into the school system because there is something called School Boxing. Why we call it school boxing is because it’s non-contact; like in Karate it’s called Kata.

“A few years ago, I developed a programme to introduce boxing into the school system but we never got to that level for Education Ministry to bring that sports. But hopefully that can happen in the future.

“We have to talk with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Sport. But we do have a plan for a proposal to send to them to get boxing into schools as a non-contact sport.” Coach Blake explained.

“One reason they [the Jackman sisters] are missing out on quality sparring is because the boxing culture (among women in Guyana) is non-existent.

In Guyana, there is a stigma in women’s boxing… about hurting their face…head injuries and so on. They work a lot with each other since they are sisters. But it’s mostly like an exhibition and nowhere close to competition,” said Blake, an IBA three-star coach.

“Hopefully, we can take these videos of the performances back to Guyana and broadcast it [sic] back home so that some of the youngsters are able to see it and would be inspired to join the sport. We want to spread that message as much as possible,” said Blake
“I’m hoping for them to qualify for the Olympics, but it’s an uphill task for 2024. We are looking at 2028 and beyond. I believe the two girls have the ability and if they are nurtured in the right direction, we can make 2028 for sure,” Blake disclosed.