This weekend’s National Novices Championships and the ones going forward will be named after Guyana’s first world boxing champion, Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis as a way of paying homage to the fallen hero.
According to president of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), Steve Ninvalle, “It is small way that the association can have this son of the soil remembered.”
Lewis who won the WBA title on February 17, 2001 with a seventh round stoppage of James Page, succumbed to head injuries following a vehicular accident on May 4 on the Friendship Public Road.
He was 44.
“Boxing history in Guyana is not upheld as it should so this is one small way of ours of keeping that alive,” said Ninvalle yesterday. He added: “We feel that it is only fitting that we do something like this, he (Lewis) kept Guyana’s flag flying on the international scene, he is Guyana’s first world champion and again it’s only the right and fitting thing to do.”
The two-day Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis National Novices Championships will be held at the East Ruimveldt Community Centre from 19:00hrs nightly.
The GBA head also disclosed that future championships will be named after boxers who have made Guyana proud.
“We are to meet to decide on the National Intermediate and the National Open Championships.”
Ninvalle also opined that Lewis who made three defenses of his title will go down in history as a top 10 Guyanese prize fighter.
