IN Westen superstition, Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day, but this Friday, December 13, the annual Terrence Ali National Open Championship will be held at the Andrew Six Head Lewis’ Gym in Albouystown from 17:00hrs.

Could there be a blood bath in the ghetto for the pugilists from Gyms like the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Defence Force, the Forgotten Youth Foundation, Pace and Power, New Amsterdam Academy, Rose Hall, Vergenoegen and Republicans?
When day transforms into night and darkness falls, the fans who turn up for what could be a slug-fest could get the answer to that question.

This championship, which runs from December 13-15, will have its weigh-in and medical evaluation exercise on Thursday, December 12 under the supervision of qualified experts. The event marks the end of the Guyana Boxing Association(GBA) 2024 season.
“The Terrence Ali National Open Championship is the most prominent local event on our calendar of activities and fittingly brings to a conclusion a very successful and fruitful year for the discipline.

“Traditionally, the championship has served as that bridge or conduit between the realms of amateur and professional, and while the advancement of the amateur game, both on the local and international circuit, has evolved in every facet, the importance of the event has duly followed suit,” disclosed GBA President Steve Ninvalle.

“This tournament is an exhibition of Guyana’s best and offers a glimpse into our present and immediate future in the amateur segment or possible professional ranks.
“Household names are established at this juncture, but more important, from a developmental perspective, it is an exhibition in the association’s structural and refinement process of the pugilists’ respective skills given the pathway they would have undertaken from the nursery, novices, and intermediate stages,” continued Ninvalle, the backbone of amateur boxing in Guyana and the English-speaking Caribbean.

A former sports journalist, Ninvalle, who covered the bout when ‘Six Head’ won Guyana’s first world title in the USA, feels that this is a pathway that has been established and built upon given its importance in the overall development of the boxers.
“We aim to strengthen this procedure to ensure that all fighters are properly equipped with the necessary tools, so that they are prepared for the international rigors of an amateur career or the professional realm,” said Ninvalle, who is also the Director of Sport in the oil-rich nation of Guyana.