As the Holland’s Entertainment Promotion ‘Season’s Beatings’ fight card draws closer, fighters and trainers alike are fine tuning their preparations for Friday night’s showdown at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH).
Stabroek Sport caught up with the coaches of Lennox Daniels of the Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis Gym and Sebert Blake of the Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) Gym and they both expressed confidence that their fighters will triumph in Friday’s card.
Further, both coaches stated that their fighters are in the direct preparation phase where a lot of fight simulations will be executed.
Daniels on the other hand levelled with this publication that he was not fully satisfied with his boxer and Guyana’s first female world champion, Gwendolyn ‘Stealth Bomber’ O’Neil’s pre-fight work load and to a lesser extent, her conditioning. The experienced Daniels noted, however, that this will change and persons can look forward to a good fight from O’Neil.
“I am now trying to get her in fighting spirit; she seems to be down for some reason but now she is getting herself together and this is probably because I am back home and this seems to have lifted her spirit. She is ready to go,” Daniels quipped.
Daniels recently returned from Thailand after coaching Guyana’s world ranked pugilist Leon ‘Hurry Up’ Moore.
Daniels reported that they will be looking to take the fight one round at a time against Sharon ‘The Spoiler’ Warde in the main supporting bout of the night. But he, just like O’ Neil, feels that one punch can result in Warde having an early night.
O’Neil has 20 fights under her belt with 13 wins, with a knockout percentage of 35, and six losses and a drawn encounter. Warde has only seven with four wins and three losses in her professional career. Meanwhile, Blake, who has had marginal success in the ring as an amateur boxer, said that while Guyana’s heavyweight champion Rogers has been out of the ring for some time he is in “top shape” ahead of his fight with Anthony Agustin. This fight will be the feature bout of the night over a distance of six rounds. When Stabroek Sport asked how Rogers will handle his ring rust, Blake said that the fighter is doing a lot of ring work. Further, he said that while this may not be enough for a fighter who has been out of the fight game for an extended period, he is confident that Rogers will handle himself well.
Blake reported that Rogers has been sparring with lighter fighters and he has been coping well with the speed. However, Blake said that he had to caution his boxer about his punching, especially since his sparring partner is middleweight Laurex Benn, who will be fighting Iwan Azore on the same card.
“While he may not have the calibre of fighters to spar with, so we would not see much flaws as much as you would see in a fight. We are doing all we can to get him to that level where he can do what is necessary on Friday evening,” Blake declared.
Also on the card is former amateur standout Clive Atwell who will be making his professional debut against Charlton Skeete over four rounds while Orlan ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers will duke it out against Elton ‘The Real Coolie Bully’ Dharry in what should be a crowd pleaser. When the two fighters had their first outing Dharry severely beat the ‘Pocket Rocket’.
