By Marlon Munroe
Organisers of the year’s first Pro-Am card boxing card want the event to pack a punch and have added two bonus fights at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on January 28.
One of the organisers of the programme, which is the brainchild of Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) president Peter Abdool, said Saturday that Canadian Richard Reittie and Barbadian Miguel ‘Hands of Stone’ Antoine will fight Troy Lewis and Cecil Smith respectively.
Because this is the first card for the year, the organisers said they want fight fans to be truly entertained with quality bouts, the organizer said.
Patrons will be required to pay $1000 at the door and fight time is 8pm.
Weigh-in for the professional bouts will be on Thursday.
Reittie, who was born in Jamaica, first fought in Guyana last November on the Caribbean Fury 2 card where he knocked out journeyman Mark Murray in the first round.
With that win the southpaw had improved his record to five wins with four coming from knockouts.
Reittie, who had told Stabroek Sport that he doesn’t do much talking in the build up to a fight, faced a tougher test in his next assignment against Daniel Cordero of Mexico before the judges decided that the contest was a draw. The middleweight’s record now stands at five wins and a draw.
Lewis, on the other hand, has a dismal record of three wins, 12 losses and a draw.
In his last two fights he was out of his league with losses to rising stars Simeon Hardy and Edmond De Clou.
Lewis’ last two wins came against Rudolph Fraser and Eversley Browne before he secured a draw against Guyana’s welterweight champion Iwan Azore.
Before landing these wins, Lewis’ last win was in his professional debut against Rockford Abrams in August of 1999.
In the other bonus bout, Smith will have his work cut out for him against Antoine, who has an unblemished record from 13 bouts.
Nine of those wins came by the knockout route. Antoine, who is no stranger to Guyana, is the World Boxing Council (WBC) Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) light welterweight champion.
He last beat Guyanese CABOFFE contender Shawn Pile at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in December and his previous two victories also came over Guyanese in Barbados.
Smith, on the other hand, has only won two of his six professional fights. His lost his previous two matches to Clive Atwell and Mark Austin, the standout boxer of the monthly Friday Night Fights cards.
Austin, who defeated Revlon Lake by a unanimous decision in October of last year, will be going up against Jermaine King in the four-round main event on Friday.
King has lost both of his professional fights – one to Smith in his debut outing and the other to Kelvin Diaz in December of 2009.
In the night’s opening bout journeyman Winston Pompey, who has only won three of his 10 bouts, will fight another promising young fighter in Declou in a super middleweight contest. Pompey, after beating Troy Lewis in 2006, lost his next six fights before defeating Browne in 2009 and subsequently lost to Nigel Edwards in Trinidad and Tobago later that year.
Declou, on the other hand, has one blemish in his four-fight career, which came against Kwesi Jones in a rematch last year. His last fight was a split decision win against Joel Mc Rae in last month’s FNF card.
In the ladies’ contest Veronica Blackman will trade punches with Pauline London while in the remaining fight, Anthony Augustin will challenge Kurt Bess, who has had a rough baptism to his professional career. He lost his first four professional fights before beating former Guyanese heavyweight champion Mitchell Rogers and then Leon ‘The Lion’ Gilkes last year.
In the amateur segment of the card Dawanie Lampkin will trade punches with Kevin Thorne in the 80-84 pounds category. There will also be two middleweight contests with Kelsie George fighting Alfred Benjamin and Ron Smith challenging David Walters.
In the last amateur bout Central American and Caribbean (CAC) bronze medallist Ray Sandiford will be taking on Stephon Gouveia.
