A historic night of fistic action is expected tonight when the first installment of the Pro/Am ‘Friday Night Fights’ is staged at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hal(CASH) l by the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) and the Guyana Boxing Board of Control.
And judging from the weigh-in exercise at the Chemical Corner establishment at the Berbice Park last evening, the boxers will be bringing nothing but their best to the ring. ‘Agricola Boom’ Shelly Gibson was notably absent which prompted many present at the event to assume that she was scared of opponent Pauline London who weighed in at 212 pounds.
A chiseled Kwesi Jones (167 pounds) and Orlon ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers (112 pounds) looked the part for their opponents Edmond De Clou (168) and Dexter Marques (115 pounds) respectively. Catch-weight fighters Troy Lewis and Rudolph Fraser tipped the scale at 155 and 133 pounds respectively and they both expressed confidence going into the fight.
Fans will be treated to 32 rounds of professional and amateur boxing at the CASH and thousands more will have a chance to view the fights on the National Communication Network (NCN) from 20:00 hours every last Friday in every month.
The first four fights of the evening will be in the amateur ranks and then a half hour intermission will follow before the professionals get into action.
The logic behind the Pro/Am card is to have amateur boxing resuscitated in Guyana and to allow the professional pugilists to become more active so as to improve their records.
Consequently the boxers will also have more opportunities to fight for titles in the three main governing bodies. Each fight will go the distance of four rounds.
In tonight’s card former national bantamweight champion Marques, who is looking to regain the momentum of his initial baptism to the professional ranks, will take on ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers, who has developed the reputation of a journeyman with three wins from 11 bouts in the bantamweight division. Both fighters claimed that they have been preparing for the fight and they will let their gloves do the talking tonight.
Rogers has lost his last five fights with two of those coming from the gloves of Marques and one from world ranked Leon ‘Hurry Up’ Moore.
Marques’ single blemish in his short professional career also came when he was knocked out in the second round by Moore to lose the bantamweight title of Guyana.
On the other hand, Marques will be confident going into the ring this evening considering the history between the two pugilists. However, one cannot rule out the chances of Rogers, who must be thinking that the third time he must not be upstaged by his nemesis.
Last June middleweight De Clou in his debut fight at the CASH defeated the talented Jones (2 wins, 1loss) by a unanimous decision.
Therefore both fighters will have a point to prove tonight; Jones will have to prove whether he was worthy of the hype that was bestowed on him and De Clou will have to prove that he is as good when he beat Jones and that it was not a fluke.
However it is certain that both fighters will pursue a technical fight despite the fact that ring rust will be a noticeable factor. In any case, boxing pundits will enjoy the fistic poetry from the two young boxers.
In the lone professional women’s fight heavyweight London, who lost her first two professional fights to Laura Ramsey and Andrea Duncan, will be looking to keep the psychological advantage over ‘Agricola Boom’ Gibson whom she beat last year in her third fight. London, who is never afraid to state her position on what she will do to her opponents, said at the contract signing that she will “beat her bad again”.
The easy going Gibson, who has four wins and five losses, quipped that she wants to see London beat her again. In the other professional fight Fraser will duke it out with Lewis in a catch-weight encounter over four frames.
The amateur fights will be three rounds each with Renee Davis taking on Ansila Charles in the only female bout. Edwin Richards will square off against Danishwar Narine, Dexter Jordan will fight Imran Khan and the fourth match-up will see Bert Braithwaite going up against Damian Ross. The amateur bouts will all be in the flyweight division.
