The Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) under the leadership of new president Peter Abdool plans on paying more attention to the welfare of local boxers.
In an exclusive interview with Stbroek Sport, Abdool, an insurance broker, said he did not feel the Board had paid much attention to individual boxers as they should.
As president, Abdool said he was now trying to follow their career to ensure that “the Board provides services in terms of being able to help them with their legalities, nutrition, boxing contracts and any difficulties they may have at all.
“We have started to take an interest in everybody’s personal lives. How they run it, what the arrangements are, what they are doing to retain their titles,” he added.
Abdool referred to Women’s International Box-ing Association’s light-heavyweight champion, Gwendolyn O’Neil, who he said was still the WIBA champion.
“If she doesn’t have a mandatory defence within a certain time, she will lose it (the title). We have lost a number of titles that way, so we want to pay a vested interest in exactly what our boxers are doing to see what we can do as a Board to help to move them forward.”
According to Abdool, another way of assisting and promoting the achievement of boxers was by celebrating that achievement.
“We do not celebrate what our people have achieved. It’s quite remarkable when you look at some of them. So once we start to celebrate those people, the younger people who are boxers or aspiring boxers will move on, we have a lot of talent that I can develop right now. I can say that people like Hugo Lewis for example, I don’t know where he is right now, I haven’t seen him for a while, we want to bring people like that back, that’s a world champion as far as I’m concerned. Leon Moore, as you know is a champion waiting to be a champion.”
The former Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) treasurer said he would not have advocated for Moore to leave the amateur ranks until he participated in the Olympics. “He stood a genuine chance,” Abdool declared. When told of Moore’s circumstance, coming from a poor home and seeking to make a living from the sport he loves best, Abdool said “that is why the Board has to get involved with boxers at their level. What is wrong, what are the difficulties they are facing, how we can help, and how can we get you to the point where you can represent your country and do it comfortably.”
“You know if a man wins an Olympic medal, even if it’s bronze, and he launches into a professional career, he is half-way there immediately. But it’s to get the kids to see the broader picture, and to do it the professional board and the amateur board have to come together and have the country’s best interest at heart, and then from there to worry about that man when he becomes a professional.”
“I really need to bring back boxing into the limelight once again, so that we can see what we’ve done, and once we start to celebrate our achievements, that’s what we are looking to do,” Abdool emphasized.
“I’m hoping to get posters and billboards erected saying:’ Welcome to Guyana, you’re in boxing country, the country of champions’.”
Told that this venture would cost a pretty sum, Abdool said:” I’m going to call on all the corporations, I’m going to call on the government to help us because this is something we should be celebrating. ”
“I was treasurer of the amateur board for two years and in those years we managed to win back the Caribbean championships, but we have not been able to produce an Olympic gold medalist, which is what we need to do, and those kids can only be encouraged by seeing what the end result of boxing is. In other words, show them the champions, and once you have that, you have them coming in and you start developing.”
