It’s been eight months since Guyana’s heavyweight champion Mitchell ‘The Killer’ Rogers stepped into the ring and now the hard-hitting Berbician is counting down the days towards his clash with Anthony Agustin on January 29 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The bout will be over six rounds in the main event on the Holland’s Entertainment card – ‘New Year’s Beatings’.
Rogers lifted the national title in 2007 when he stopped Leon ‘The Lion’ Gilkes at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall but since then he has only stepped into the ring once.
On May 31 last year, Rogers fought Clyde Williams in Linden on another card promoted by Holland but so vicious were his punches that Williams refused to come out for the second round, saying that he was being hit too hard.
Following that, Rogers was hard-pressed to find an opponent until Dexter Collins stepped forward saying that he can take out Rogers and the two were down to face-off on the Caribbean Fury Card that was headlined by Shondel Alfred and Corrine De Groot.
But the mistake Collins made was to head to the Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis Gym in Albouystown one day during Rogers’ training session and after seeing how the punching bag was being rocked he threw in the towel before even feeling a single blow.
“I’m happy for this fight because I want to show people that I can box,” Rogers told Stabroek Sport on Wednesdayy as he prepared to go through another rigorous workout with his training team headed by Sebert Blake.
“Finally I will get a chance to fight. You know, it has been hard on me because I’m always training but I can’t get a fight, so now I’m just going through my training and next week time we will tone it down a bit you know,” Rogers said.
Rogers revealed that himself and Agustin were gymmates which means that they both would know how to get around each other.
He, however revealed that he has done some extensive work which Agustin might not know of.
“You see, we used to train together so he knows certain things about me and I know certain things about him. But I have been working on my tactics and so on so you will be in for a surprise come fight night,” Rogers said.
Asked how long he thinks Agustin will last, Rogers said, “Not past three – see I can end it earlier if I want but I want to show the Guyanese people what I’m made off and actually work on my boxing a bit and then close him off. I know for sure he can’t pass round three, that’s all I know.”
Mitchell Rogers began his professional career in 2005 with a first round TKO loss to Kerston Manswell of Trinidad and Tobago.
However, since then none of Rogers’ fights has ever gone the distance and his record stands at five wins, all of which came by the TKO route, and his lone unforgettable loss.
“I think this would be the last time I will be fighting a local fighter. It is getting boring and they don’t really want to fight me, so I will be talking with my manager Carwyn Holland to see how much fight overseas I could get because I want to face up with people in the Caribbean and so on to see how I really stand because one day I would like to become a world champion,” Rogers disclosed.
