BELIZE CITY, Mon. May 18, 2015–The Belize Boxing Federation (BBF) held its first Sunday Knockout event yesterday, May 17, at the CET compound, corner St. Thomas and St. Joseph Streets, the venue chosen by the BBF to mitigate cost.

Due to some technical difficulties, the event, scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m., actually got under way around 3:00 p.m., but it had a respectable support of about a hundred fans, consisting mostly of family members of the boxers, which was very much appreciated.

The bouts involved participation from a number of boxing gyms – coach Swaso Boxing Gym of Dangriga, where one of his fighters won in convincing style and the other lost showing great potential; coach Leopold Smart Boxing Gym from Belize City; coach Dereck Stewart’s Burrell Boom Elite Boxing Club; and Lion’s Den Belize City, run by coach Clinton Tucker.

In the opening bout, we saw Jevan Geban, 14 yrs, vs Gordon Richards, 15 yrs, where the judges gave Gordon the split decision victory.

Next it was Edison Coleman, 15 yrs, vs Akeem Avilez, 15 yrs, with Akeem winning by unanimous decision.

This was followed by Ariel Cowo, 15 yrs, vs Amir Rudon, which was an exhibition, and was considered the best fight of the day, with both boxers showing impressive skills.

The fourth bout featured Christopher Lopez, 21 yrs, vs Noel Carado, 19 yrs. Carado won this fight when the referee stopped the contest, awarding him the TKO victory.

Bout number five, Dion Gongora, 19 yrs, vs Kolin Lamb, was considered the most entertaining fight of the event. Kolin won the fight after the referee stopped the match with about one minute left in the 3rd round. Kolin was very impressive in his technique; and even in his loss, Dion showed great potential.

(N.B. There was also an exhibition bout between Dereck Villanueva, 22, and Louis Jones, 26, who had no one to fight in their weight class.)

Thanks

We would like to thank the doctors – Dr. Munguia, Dr. Vasquez, Dr. Cruz, Dr. Williams and Dr. Paguaga – who are all part of the federation’s Medical Council who do the medical certification of the boxers, their check-up before the fights, and who are also supportive of getting some assistance for the federation.

We would like to thank all the coaches for their dedication and hard work, and for understanding and accepting that the Belize Boxing Federation must follow the rules and regulations by which we are governed.

We especially would like to thank the boxers for their dedication towards being great Belizean citizens, in being involved in a productive sport, rather than being on the street.

We must thank the fans who came out on a cool Sunday afternoon to support our young and talented fighters.

Government support needed

I must say that we have a great opportunity as a country to support our young men and women who have chosen the Gloves instead of the Guns; and we are asking the Government of Belize to support these young Belizeans by giving us a proper boxing ring, which only costs $9,000.00 US, and resources to grow the sport, and we will have Olympic medalists in the next couple years.

We would like to welcome anyone who would be willing to support us, to be able to have events regularly, so the boxers can get the activity and the experience they need.

Plans

We intend to have a local Sunday Knockout event at least once a month. We would do it every two weeks if we get the support.

This competition was held under the Technical Rules of the Federation and AIBA.