By Morissa Lindsay
There is a certain hype surrounding local boxing and rightfully so when there is a spike in female participation and not to mention the Barbados Boxing Association (BBA) will host its first national event this Saturday, October 1, at the Graydon Sealy Secondary School.
BBA general secretary, Kathy Harper-Hall shared that there will be 11 exciting bouts on the card while first vice-president Kelvin Nowell said that there is a positive torrent in local female boxing led by the talented Kimberly Gittens.
“There is a surge in female boxing because in the past we had two or three and now we have a total of 13 young ladies in boxing, ten of whom came through the ongoing Ohana project called Gloves over Guns. Plus, at Belfield Boxing Gym I have two heavyweights in Kemara Stuart (elite) and Kim Fields (novice),” Nowell said.
As Barbados prepares to select a team for the upcoming Caribbean Boxing Championships scheduled to take place in December in Dominica, Nowell and Harper-Hall both acknowledged the fact that the BBA was unable to get elite boxers from overseas to visit Barbados and compete against Gittens and Jabali Breedy who is a featherweight.
The featured bout on the night for the Ronald Wilson Memorial Tournament will be between Charles Cox of the National Gym and Shakaun Lashley of Oldbury Gym who are both light heavyweights. These two are no stranger to competing against each other which should result in a great showdown.
In fact, Nowell who is also the head of promotion for the BBA explained: “We have 11 bouts and we got somebody for Charles Cox but not Jabali and Kimberly. These bouts are to select persons to go to Dominica. But Kimberly, Jabali and Cox are our automatic choices but Cox now we got a fellow named Shakaun Lashley and two of them are in the same division. So, instead of carrying Cox we decided to have a box off to see who wins.”
Nowell added: “The boxing bouts this weekend will be a classic because you have to win to go forward to be selected for the team. So, once you win you go forward to the next bout which is October 29th, so everybody has to put their best foot forward to win.”
The BBA led by president Dr Melissa Branford-Jones had its last boxing card in January of 2020 when they held the Ronald Wilson Memorial Tournament. Since then there has been no boxing competition because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier this year the Shaka School of Boxing put on the lone card to motivate local boxers coming out of the pandemic. So this will be the first time in two years Barbadians will get a chance to witness boxers in action at a national level.
Longstanding boxing administrator Harper- Hall urged the public to support the event and said spectators are in for a treat this coming Saturday with four competing gyms – National Gym, FightnFit Gym, Shaka School and Oldbury Gym – in action.
Light heavyweight boxer Shakaun Lashley of Oldbury Gym will come up against Charles Cox in the featured bout on Saturday night.
“The coaches are the ones who registered the boxers and the coaches are the ones who are confident that they are ready to box. Quite a few of them on the card are novices and then they are going to be like four open bouts. But the point is that we are preparing them for the Caribbean Boxing Championships which is going to be in Dominica in December, so this is all part of their preparation.
“This is part of the Barbados Boxing Association plans to prepare our team for the Caribbean Boxing Championships, so we would want the public to come out and see what we have if we are going to ask them for support. If we are going to ask them for support then they need to know what they are supporting.
“In addition to that we really need support from the point of view of other persons coming, paying at the door and helping us because we have not been able to have any fund raising activities for quite some time and we are looking for persons to sponsor the boxing bout. At the moment we are selling each boxing bout at a hundred per bout, so if there is anyone out there who would like to get their name attached to a bout, we would be grateful,” Harper- Hall said.
At the last Caribbean Championship held in 2019 Barbados finished runners-up to Trinidad and Tobago. That showing by team Barbados was better than their 2018 performance where the national side was third overall. This year, however, Harper- Hall said the BBA wants to secure the number one spot in the region with a total of 17 countries registered so far.
“Since things opened up a little bit from the end of July to early August, the boxers have been back in training, so they would still have had August, September, October, November, four months to prepare for December. That is why we are putting on the boxing card and hopefully they will be another one,” Harper- Hall stated.
The next boxing card is scheduled for October 29th put on by the Unity Boxing Gym headed by former top Barbadian boxer Edward Neblett.
In addition, Harper-Hall said the BBA was planning another boxing card slated for November 12 and it is at that point the team for the Caribbean Boxing Championships will be decided.
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
