• Confident Marques says age is just a number

DEXTER Marques faces Olympian Keevin Allicock for the Guyana Featherweight Title on April 25 at the Pegasus Suites in Georgetown in the undercard of the ‘Lion and the Bull’ world title fight.

Previously set for March 28, the event was rescheduled by organisers.

The feature bout will see US-based Guyanese Elton Dharry matching gloves with Tanzania’s 22-year-old Salmin Kassim for the International Boxing Organisation (IBO) super-bantamweight world title.

Both Allicock and Marques hail from Albouystown and share the same birthday but the 39-year-old Marques is 13 years senior to the 26-year-old Allicock.

“Boxing is not about age which is just a number. I always be in the gym. Keevin got to come prepared to fight. It’s 12 rounds, not three or four rounds. It’s not amateur, it’s professional.

He now come into the game and he has to be prepared to fight physically and mentally” posited Marques, the Police boxing coach who turns 40 on June 13.

“I don’t think his age or speed has no advantage. I know him A1 and know me A1. Somebody could only be fast if you let them to be fast. He has to prove himself; I think it’s going to be an excellent fight but in the end I will be successful.

The public can expect me to win… Keevin never fight nobody. I have fought some good boxers and my record shows it. I am not taking anything away from him, but the public will see a different Dexter Marques. I promise them that.” stated Marques, who has a professional record of 24 fights, 19 wins and five losses.

Allicock, with a professional record of 3-0, will look to remain undefeated as youth tries the conquer experience.

“I am ready, because this is my game. Boxing is not about talking, it’s about preparing yourself and I am one hundred per cent prepared” stated Marques, who made his pro debut on April 7, 2007, with a TKO win over Carlton Skeete.

“The postponement wasn’t bad it gives everybody more time to prepare and focus on your game plan. Everything happens in God’s time; we don’t predict nothing that happens in our life. For me whatever time is that, is that. If it was the previous date, I would still be successful.

Keevin Alicock is a very good youngster since he was small and I always thought he would be a good boxer, but this is the big boy’s game.

I respect him and his family, but I think is a big mistake he made at this time to take on me. I don’t know who advised him” Marques wondered.

“Keevin is a YouTube and Facebook fighter… it’s good to sell yourself to the world. I will skin him up. I don’t have a prediction, but I know I will punish him” said the five-time Caribbean Amateur champion (2002-2006).

“This fight is very important for me because I have a few more fights. Being the champion of my country will make me proud, and my fans will see it’s not about age but the work you put in.

I am thankful for the opportunity to fight for the national title again in a different weight class,” said Marques proudly.

Marques became the only boxer to get a title shot after just one fight when he beat Orlando Rogers to win the vacant Guyana Bantamweight title.

Marques, who lost his mother in childbirth when he was six, and whose father passed away just before he turned seven, said that for professional boxing to improve, there is a need for more international-standard gyms. “About three in Georgetown and some in different areas in Guyana. We have a lot of youth who could become champions, but they don’t have the opportunities. This Government is doing a good job in building sports facilities and proper boxing gyms across Guyana is needed.

This will give the youths the opportunity, who wants to play cricket, football, box or play other sports. Even if you have a lot of promoters and don’t have many fighters, the cards will be the same boxers all the time,” Marques explained.