A Linden boxing coach has turned his love of the sport into opportunities for several boxers from his community to gain international recognition through participation in overseas contests.
This is a sport that has seen many rags-to-riches stories and has also brought fame to countries with little notoriety.
Guyana gained its share of the boxing fame when Andrew ‘Six Head’ Lewis became Guyana’s first World Champion when he won the World Welterweight crown in 2001 while Linden’s own Terrence Ali is one of the mining town’s own rags to riches story.
Dirk Alexander, head coach of Young Lions Boxing Gym at Half Mile Wismar, started his boxing career in the 1980s, but, he said, he “never had the chance to get exposed to the international world.”
Founded around 1995, the gym is funded by overseas-based Guyanese and former boxer Walter Smith. It currently has about 15 amateur fighters and one professional. Two female professionals have also relocated to Georgetown. Some gym members are as young as 10-years-old.
One of Alexander’s protégés Clevlon Rock led Guyana’s boxing contingent to the Central American and Caribbean Games held in Puerto Rico in July. Rock, who is a member of the gym, was also the 2008 Junior Commonwealth Games silver medallist.
Alexander said one of the reasons he started the gym was to keep the ‘kids off the road’ and he believes that the training they receive instils discipline. He posited that once a person is fit and healthy, he/she should consider the sport particularly since it can bring international recognition. Opportunities are also available locally to professional boxers, for example, gym member Edmund De Clou had a scheduled fight in July, on a boxing card at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Carifesta Avenue.
Boxers from the Young Lions gym have also had matches in Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the USA. Alexander said the overseas exposure that his boxers receive makes him “real, real proud…especially when the guys are on tour.”
The Young Lions Boxing Gym started with 12-15 persons who all wanted to become boxers. Fourteen years on, new recruits are carrying on this proud tradition. The gym is also seeking assistance for boxing gear such as gloves, skipping ropes, mouth pieces and other essential boxing items.
