Local-based fighters Aaron Prince and Andrew Fermin lived up to their favourite billing by landing their respective divisions at the Trinidad and Tobago National Amateur Boxing Championships, which ended last night at the Woodbrook Youth Facility.
Prince showed the experience of having been to several international tournaments when chasing Defence Force opponent Leon Nottingham around the ring on the way to convincingly landing the welterweight division. Though less explosive, Fermin went up in weight to comfortably defeat Sheldon Lawrence on points in the light-heavyweight division.
But it was Michael Alexander of the Diego Martin-based World Class Boxing Gym who caused the biggest upset of the tournament when defeating American Glenford Nickki Jr. on the penultimate night of action at the Maloney Indoor Facility. Having put on a show when winning his toughest fight at the semi-final stage, southpaw Alexander came back yesterday to dominate Stephan Charles of Black Hawks in the lightweight final.
Of four North American fighters taking part in the Championship, Lexon Bates and Carlos Suarez won explosively, while Lawrence Singh could not find an opponent. Bates was an explosive winner in one round over Ryan Persad of the Marabella-based Cosmic Boxing Club. Persad took two standing eight counts and some punishment in his three minutes in the ring. Bates has been fighting for six years and has 32 wins in 40 amateur fights.
“Both of my parents are from Trinidad and I decided to represent this country and hopefully make it to the Olympics,” said 33 year-old light-welterweight Bates, who is from Ontario, Canada.
Meanwhile, Ohio-based Suarez won the light-flyweight title by outclassing Arshad Fabien of the Carenage-based Magic Boxing Club in two rounds. Fabien took undue punishment against Suarez, a classy fighter who put together combinations of clean, straight punches. Fabien took three standing eight counts and was also deducted a point before the referee Fitzroy Beckles stopped the fight at the end of the second round, with a weary Fabien hanging on the ropes. Suarez, a very experienced young fighter ,said he was happy for the experience of fighting in T&T.
“I will be 19 in June and have been boxing for nine years. My mom is from here, so I decided to represent Trinidad and Tobago in the sport,” he said.
Meanwhile, no one wanted to fight Lawrence Singh, a 17-year-old Maryland fighter with over 100 amateur fights and about 85 wins. Singh, who fights in the 105-pound division, won by walkover and is therefore almost a certain pick on the national team for the final Olympic qualifier, which takes place in Brazil in May.
“It’s out of my power. There was nothing I could really do about it,” Singh said, about not having gotten a fight. “Yes, I am a fighter. That is what I came all the way here to do. I would have loved a fight, but since there was nobody here for me to fight, there was nothing I could do about it.”
(Source http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Fermin__Prince_land_boxing_titles-139197944.html)
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