By Iva Wharton
Guyanese boxing promoter Carwyn Holland has been appointed Vice-President of the newly-formed Caribbean Promoters Association (CPA) which was formed eight months ago, according to its president Trinidadian Jason Fraser.
The association, Fraser said, was formed with the aim of protecting the interest of boxing promoters and boxers throughout the Caribbean region.
“The Caribbean Promoters Association has taken the responsibility to resurrect boxing within the Caribbean Community. We also chose to establish a code of conduct for all promoters to ensure successful and professional hosting of events.”
Holland said this association would be good for Guyana and the boxers. According to him, boxers who are represented by promoters affiliated with the association will be insured and should boxers sustain injuries they can be compensated.
Holland said that he has seen many boxers who have been left with permanent injuries and they just have to fend for themselves with no assistance coming from anywhere.
He also said there is an urgent need for promoters to be represented. “Because when you are suppressed, victimized or sabotaged as is often done in my case there is no one you could talk to. There is no voice to lend support to actions taken by anyone.”
Holland said he was not prepared to disclose names, but should there be any such acts in the future they will be exposed by the association.
Fraser added that the association will try to put to rest the issue of promoters cashing in big after fights with no care for the boxers.
That, Fraser said, is not the truth as it is the promoters who are losing financially. Even though there is corporate support, promoters on many occasions have to put their hands in their pockets to offset some of the expenses.
“It is only because of the love of the sport that we continue to push forward and not quit or give up.”
He said, however, that to ensure that the fallacy is put to rest the association is working on a suggestion which would see a standard percentage of the boxers’ earnings going toward promoters.
Currently a promoter’s percentage is worked out between the fighter and the promoter privately.
Fraser said that the association is not there to take control of any boxing board but to work with them to develop the sport.
The association, he said, is hoping to have the full support of boxing boards throughout the region if they are to promote the sport at both the amateur and professional levels.
“This is the only way we can together with the boxing boards revive boxing within the region. I must say that ten years ago you could have been any part of the Caribbean and if you think boxing, you would have two countries at hand; Cuba and Guyana. Now within the boxing world you can’t even hear about Guyana.”
“The boards are there to protect the interest of the fighters, but too often after a boxer is retired he can’t find a job, he has no education and will not be able to support his family.
“We are trying to get scholarship packages by taking the sport back to the community and to the schools to identify boxers with potential. Other plans that will be undertaken by the association are the creation of a retirement plan and the formation of a union.”
The union, Fraser added, would not be run by the association, but an external body that will deal primarily with the boxers.
According to him, too often boxers are left to wander the streets after their careers are over, and that should not be allowed to happen.
Many of boxers who had represented their countries in international tournaments are not given the recognition they deserve in the end, he observed.
Among the other countries on board, Fraser said, are St Kitts, St. Vincent, Grenada, Cayman Island, Barbados, Jamaica and St. Lucia.
