By Marlon Munroe
Four amateur boxers who will represent Guyana at the Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) in Puerto Rico will have an opportunity to further validate their selection when they appear on the fifth Friday Night Fights Pro-Am card tomorrow night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Rock, who is a junior Commonwealth Games silver medalist, will look to replicate his silver medal performance when he comes up against Nandkumar Singh in a rematch in the lightweight division.
The two first met on June 5 on the BrisO Promotions ‘Deadly Encounters’ fight card at the Princess Hotel and Singh was comprehensively beaten.
Singh, who fights out of the Republican Gym, has developed a reputation for beating some of the most established amateur fighters. He defeated Guyana’s lightweight champion Ray Sandiford in the last edition of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control/Guyana Amateur Boxing Association FNF last month.
In Rock’s last fight with Singh, Rock seemed to become tired down the stretch due to Singh’s unrelenting pressure.
GABA treasurer Dexter Patterson said at a press briefing Tuesday at the NCN studios that the association was looking to have the boxers active so that when they go to Puerto Rico next month they will be in the mode to bring Guyana glory.
He also pointed out that the GABA had planned a Goodwill Tournament with other Caribbean countries but negotiations fell through.
Therefore the association decided to find an alternative to get the fighters prepared for their international assignments from July 22-31 via the last Pro-Am card before they depart.
CAC medal hopefuls Herlando Allicock, Dexter Jordan and Bert Braithwaite, who have all promised to succeed at the upcoming championships, will be challenging Danishwar Narine in the junior flyweight division, Rhyan Ally and George Anthony respectively.
Meanwhile, in the main event of the night Leon ‘The Lion’ Gilkes said that he does not want to make any predictions since he had done this in the past “and things didn’t go to plan like what I say.”
Gilkes will be going against Anthony Augustin for four rounds in a heavyweight clash.
Also on that card is former amateur champion Mandessa Moses who will be looking to keep her slate clean at the fifth stanza of the Pro-Am card. She will be going up against veteran Margaret ‘Chico’ Walcott who has a miserable tale-of-the-tape with a solitary win, eight losses and a drawn encounter.
The opening night’s professional segment will see former amateur champion Clive Atwell coming up against Mark Austin in a lightweight contest while Orlan ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers will be hoping to end his winless streak with a victory over Wilmot Hutson.
