Butler, Allen, Major, Mackey among front runners
By SHELDON LONGLEY
NG Sports Reporter
As 2002 draws to a close, Champion Amateur Boxing Club will announce its most outstanding boxers tonight at their 5th Annual Ray Minus Sr. End-of-Year awards and Christmas celebrations.
The celebrations will be held at their headquarters, the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex Boxing Center, at 7:00 p.m. tonight to climax what has been a remarkable year for amateur boxing in The Bahamas.
More than 20 youngsters will be vying for the Boxers of the Year and Most Improved Boxers awards in four separate divisions - senior, junior (Under-20), youth (Under-16) and kids (12 and under). Awards will also be presented for the Fights of the Year in all four divisions. The sponsors of the club will be presenting the awards.
"This year will be kind of unique in that the boxers will be putting on a talent display. We tried to make the whole party a fun thing," said club head coach Ray Minus Jr.
"We are very happy with the progress of the boxers. The competition was very stiff this year and we have a number of boxers in a tight race for the Boxers of the Year and Most Improved Boxers awards. It was a nail biter for the boxers who have been active all year," he added.
Minus Jr. said that there is a good possibility of some ties in some of the divisions because of the competitiveness displayed this year. He was very discreet regarding the contenders but it is expected that boxers such as Jerry 'Big Daddy' Butler, Alpachino 'Banger' Allen, Anthony 'Cougass' Major, Jermaine 'Choo Choo' Mackey, Damian Tinker, Ivan Moxey and Miguel Mackey just to name a few are high on the list as far as considerations are concerned.
The celebrations tonight will conclude a year in which The Bahamas won its first ever Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association (CABA) Championships, formerly Carifta Box-offs.
Only two members of the 20-member CABA team returned home without medals. The Bahamas, winners of nine gold medals, four silver and three bronze, will try to defend their championship in The Bahamas next year.
This year, The Bahamas was also represented by five talented young boxers at the XVII Commonwealth Games in Manchester England. Three of those boxers won CABA gold medals this year while another was a silver medalist and the other - in all likelihood - would have won the gold had he not been disqualified for a late punch.
One of the candidates for Senior Boxer of the Year and Most Improved Boxer award, Jermaine Mackey, was the sole boxer to win a match at this year's Commonwealth Games.
Bahamian boxers also represented the country at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo last month, the Junior World Championships earlier this year and a few international tournaments in the Florida area.
"There is no doubt that we have had a very prosperous year for amateur boxing," said Minus Jr.
"We were able to take fights to the Briland regatta (North Eleuthera Regatta) for the first time and we would like to thank Minister of Sports Neville Wisdom for making that possible. We also put on boxing shows at the South Beach Police Station and Christie Park for the first time. We are trying to take amateur boxing to the public and provide a lot of opportunities for local boxers," he added.
