At first glance Trinidadian Leeann Boodram’s soft features and long limbs give you the impression that she may be a model and she has been told this on more than one occasion, or even a school teacher.
But beyond those charming looks she is a brave southpaw amateur boxer who will be making her professional debut this evening against Guyana’s Mandessa Moses at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) on the ninth Pro-Am card, which begins at 20:00 hours.
The 22-year-old has been in the fistic sport for 10 years now and from all indications she wants to someday become a world champion, perhaps even a greater one than her idol heavyweight champion Laila Ali.
Another fighter she admired was the late Trinidadian fighter Giselle Salandy, who died in a car accident on January 5, 2009. Boodram has lost count of how many persons she has fought and even more telling she said she has lost track of how many fighters she has knocked out.
However, she said that she has lost three fights.
Sitting down with Stabroek Sport yesterday at the Waterchris Hotel, Boodram said that she is determined and with the support in her corner Moses will be easily defeated. She hopes Moses, who was a former amateur champion, brings all that she has because at the end of the night the win will be going back to Trinidad & Tobago.
And with an air of superiority Boodram declared, “I don’t adapt to anybody’s style, they have to adapt to mine. I am here to win and she will find out about me in the ring tomorrow night.”
According to Boodram, while she was given short notice for the fight she had been in the ring last month and she had to fast track her workload for this bout. She said that it was a collective effort of technical and tactical preparation but she also noted that she has been continuously working on her fitness.
On the other hand, when asked if she should lose to Moses, she said that she will be disappointed but that is not an option for her going into the fight. She pointed out that her focus is always fighting to win and any other result is hardly given a second thought.
Meanwhile, Barbadian Sean ‘The Sniper’ Cox will make his second successive appearance on the Friday Night Fights against Kurt Best in a cruiserweight bonus bout. On the card of the last Pro-Am event ‘The Sniper’ won by a unanimous decision over journeyman Leon ‘The Lion’ Gilkes in their four-round encounter.
Cox, who has one blemish to his professional record with a loss at the hands of Salvatore Erittu, arrived in Guyana yesterday and is also the Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFFE) cruiserweight champion with 11 wins.
Another Barbadian fighter in Revlon Lake will be challenging FNF’s star Mark Austin. Also on the professional segment are Clive Atwell against Cecil Smith while Simeion Hardy will take on Patrick Boston.
Meanwhile, for the amateur card the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) released the names of its boxers who will be fighting on Tuesday.
Republican Gym’s lightweight boxer Nankumar Singh will be matching gloves with Stephon Gouveia while Stephon Joseph and Travis Fraser will do battle in the super bantamweight division.
Ryan Jeffers and Marlon Daryl will go up against each other in another lightweight fight and to round off the card Samuel Primo and Brian Bailer will square off in the heavyweight division.