-boxing board president
By Marlon Munroe
It seems as if the dust of controversy that has been swirling around professional boxing is starting to settle as the President of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control announced yesterday that there will be three world title fights on June 5 at the Princess Hotel.
Guyanese ‘Deadly’ Denny Dalton will headline the night’s card against Puerto Rico’s Hector ‘Machito’ Camacho Jr. for the vacant World Boxing Federation Intercontinental middleweight title.
Also on that historic night will be the long-awaited mandatory rematch between WIBA Bantamweight champion Shondell ‘Mystery Lady’ Alfred and challenger Corinne ‘Sexy Panther’ De Groot.
And Guyana’s first female world champion Gwendolyn ‘Stealth Bomber’ O’Neil will also oppose her compatriot Veronica Blackman for the vacant WIBA heavyweight tile of the world.
GBBC President Peter Abdool was quoted as saying that this will be the biggest card in the history of the English-speaking Caribbean and it has taken a Herculean effort to put together.
Further, he noted that since the fight will be held at a hotel, as is the case with many international fights and the first in Guyana, this points to a new direction in which the sport should be heading in the future.
New York-based Guyanese promoter Seon Bristol, owner of the BrisO Promotions, will be promoting the card that should have just included the Dalton/Camacho Jr. encounter and other undercard fights.
However, after talks with fellow promoter Odinga Lumumba, who was tasked with handling the Alfred/De Groot match-up, it was agreed that Bristol will bear the brunt of this additional bout.
Bristol was not at the press conference yesterday at the Princess Hotel but according to reports from Abdool, who is also president of CABOFFE, he will be in Guyana next Wednesday.
At the moment many of the queries as they relate to the fight could not have been answered but the president is adamant that there will be a successful staging of the historic event.
“This card was quite a job to put together and I think it has come as a benefit of Shondell and De Groot’s fight being put off and Mr. Lumumba having had the grace to allow Mr. Bristol to carry that fight. In addition to that the hotel has played a pivotal role and I am hoping that the fact that they have allowed this venue to be used heralds well for boxing and I hope that this is the start of things to come,” Abdool explained.
General Manager of the Princess Hotel Muharren Kulekci also weighed in by stating that it was a privilege for the establishment to be associated with the event.
The fight will be held in the large area contiguous to the swimming pool area and according to Abdool the setup will cater for 2,000 persons.
The general admission will be $3,000 with ringside tickets going for $5,000 while the tickets for the VIP section will sell for $10,000.
Patrons are being urged to get their tickets early when they go on sale shortly. However, it is not yet known whether the fight will be televised locally but Bristol, who holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Organisational Management, had previously told Stabroek Sport that there are systems in place for a live internet pay-per-view audience.
He had also said that a PayPal account will be set up and persons outside of Guyana will be able to view the fight at a reasonable cost.
PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet.
The controversial rematch, Stabroek Sport understands, between De Groot and Alfred will still follow the original guidelines that were stipulated by WIBA President Ryan Wissow where the champion will receive 60% of the purse and the challenger 40%.
Initially a US$7,000 floor price was set for the two fighters but details will be known at a later date on what Bristol will be proposing.
Signing of the fight contract and the ironing out of loose ends should be taken care of when Bristol visits Guyana next week. He had stated on numerous occasions that he was only interested in seeing the promotion of quality fights and he was ready to take on this task whenever the opportunity was presented.
Meanwhile, Alfred stated that she is still well prepared for the fight and will be defending her title on June 5.
The GBBC president also stated that Lumumba had written a letter to the governing body apologising for the inconvenience he has caused with the constant postponements. It was also said yesterday that he will be honouring his obligations and will be paying out $100,000 to Alfred and US$1,000 to De Groot to compensate for their rigorous training regimens and for the costs they have incurred.
