By Emmerson Campbell
After hosting a successful and historic all-pro card last month that featured five World Boxing Council (WBC) Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) title fights, the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) will now return to the Pro Am initiative.
The 21st edition of the Guyana Fight Night Pro Am will be staged at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on March 30 with four amateur and four professional bouts.
The professional segment of the card will become official today at the contract signing at the Abdool and Abdool building on the Avenue of the Republic.
According to executives of the GBBC, the card will be headlined by Mandessa Moses and Venezuelan Anys Sedillo in an eight-round super bantamweight affair. The undercard will feature two newly crowned WBC CABOFE champions, welterweight Simeon `Candy Man? Hardy and middleweight Edmond `Wonder Boy, DeClou.
Hardy will face Mark Austin in an eight-round welterweight contest while DeClou will match gloves with Berbician Kelsie George in a six-round catch weight fight.
Also on the under card will be Rudolph Fraser and Barbadian Gardel Roberts engaging in a junior light weight rematch. Fraser won their first encounter last year February by a unanimous decision.
Hardy and DeClou will be representing CABOFE at the lucrative WBC World Cup which boxes off in August and will be using these fights as warm-ups.
Hardy, who won his CABOFE title in January by stopping Iwan Azore in the headline bout of the 20th edition of the Guyana Fight Night card, will look to build his record and further enhance his reputation as a knockout artist.
The ‘Candy Man’, who is the proud owner of South America’s fastest knockout, has an unblemished record of seven wins. Six of those wins have been by the KO route, including a 20-second demolition of Patrick Boston in his debut professional bout in October 2010.
DeClou, fresh off his TKO victory of Trinidad and Tobago’s Kevin Placide in their WBC CABOFE middleweight bout last month on the GBBC’s WBC Cup of Caribbean Champions card, will be looking to build his record against the young Berbician.
The ’Wonder Boy’ has a record of 10 wins, two losses and one draw. George has a solitary professional fight which was a loss to Troy Lewis last September.
Austin and George will be looking to create upsets and make statements of their own.
Moses who has not fought since last year February will be using her bout against Sedillo as a warm-up for her potential world title shot later this year.
The names of the boxers who will make up the amateur segment of the card will be announced in a subsequent article.
