By Emmerson Campbell
Guyana’s welterweight champion, Iwan ‘Pure Gold’ Azore is brimming with confidence ahead of his bout with Simeon ‘Candy Man’ Hardy for the vacant World Boxing Council’s (WBC) CABOFE welterweight title on January 27. The fight which will be staged at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall will headline the 20th edition of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) Guyana Fight Night Pro Am card.
Stabroek Sport caught up with the Trinidad and Tobago-based south paw at his training base at the Five Star Boxing Gym in Golden Grove, where he revealed that he has been training for about six weeks for his title bout and is confident of walking away with the CABOFE title.
“Well I have been training like for six weeks, two weeks in Trinidad and a month here. I’m training twice a day, mornings I run and do shadow boxing, in the afternoons I do sparring and pads, I hit the heavy bags, the speed ball, do some skipping and some technical works, come fight night I am confident of walking away with the title,” Azore boasted. Azore who sustained a cut over his left eye as a result of engaging Hardy in a bare knuckle punch-out at their contract signing on January 10, noted that the injury has made him more focused and fired up for his matchup with the ‘Candy Man’.
“My confidence level is high, since I got this cut my confidence has grown even more. I was relaxing in the gym all the time and going through the motions but since I got this cut and saw my blood I got fired up, I know what his intentions are and that made me more focused, I just will go out there and do what I have to do.”
‘Pure Gold’ stopped short of predicting a knockout but he assured his fans of a victory.
Said Azore: “I have no predictions in this fight; I don’t go into the ring searching for a knockout but if the knockout presents itself I will take it, but I will say this, later on in the fight my experience will work for me, the public will have a good show. I will do my best and like I said before at the end of the night I will walk away with the title.” The ‘Candy Man,’ who is undefeated in his six bouts, winning five of them within round three with his trade mark ‘chin checker’ punch is a known knockout artist but Azore, 29, is a battle-tested southpaw with a record of 14 wins, four losses and three draws.
Will the ‘Candy Man’ remain unbeaten or will Azore capture the title? The answer will be known on the 27th.
The undercard will feature two more welterweights with Jermaine King coming up against Cecil Smith in a four-round rematch while heavyweights Mitchell Rogers and Anthony Augustin will also match gloves for a second time in a four-round encounter. King and Augustin will be looking to avenge their respective losses.
Guyana’s middleweight champion Edmond DeClou will also match gloves with James Walcott in a four-round catch-weight contest.
Meanwhile, the amateur segment of the card was to be headlined by two road-to-London Olympic Games pugilists, bantamweights Imran ‘Magic’ Khan and Richard Williamson. Khan is now out after he was stabbed in the arm on Thursday.
Williamson’s younger brother Joel Williamson will also be on the amateur segment of the card. The younger Williamson will be matching gloves with Travis Hubbard who trains at the Harpy Eagles Gym in Albouystown in the 95-99 pounds category.
Other pugilists who will be making up the amateur segment will be another Harpy Eagles’ product Randolph Singh who will take on Young Achievers product Quincy Gomes in a lightweight contest.
Matthew Hollingsworth from the Five Star Boxing Gym will come up against Diwani Lampkin from the Forgotten Youth Foundation Gym in a 100-106 pound matchup.
The monthly card is an initiative of the GBBC in collaboration with the Sports Ministry and the National Communications Network (NCN).
Sponsors of the event include Digicel, Giftland Office Max, Courts, Banks DIH Limited and ANSA McAl.
Admission is $1,000 while children will be asked to pay half price. Bell time is 20:00 hrs.
