President of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) Peter Abdool upgraded his resume when he was named President of the World Boxing Council (WBC) Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) at the organisation’s annual general meeting in Barbados yesterday.
Abdool became the first person from the English-speaking Caribbean to hold the post and, speaking with Stabroek Sport from Barbados last night, the newly-elected CABOFE president said that the post came as a surprise after long standing founder member and former president of the organisation Lloyd Vancouten stepped down.
“Well I’ll be honest with you, all this came as a bit of surprise to me and as a matter of fact, when Lloyd stepped down I was more surprised because he was there from the beginning but this is an important position for one to hold because it also gives you a seat on the board of the WBC itself which as you know is one of boxing’s most reputable organizations,” Abdool said.
Abdool added that boxing in the Caribbean will be forever grateful to what Vancouten, who hails from Aruba, brought to the sport and how he has represented them but he believes that Guyanese and English Caribbean boxers would have more representation now.
“I think this heralds a lot for boxing in the Caribbean and I think it would work out even better for Guyanese boxing as well and I think I would be able to have a more solid voice to other international bodies in terms of negotiations and so on, so this is a great achievement for me and boxing in Guyana,” the new CABOFE boss explained.
Leon Moore, who is the Caribbean’s highest rated fighter at No. 7 in the world by the WBC is the CABOFE Bantamweight Champion and will be defending that title against Colombian Mauricio Pastrana on September 26 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
