Salandy gets boxing licence at last

TEENAGE female boxer Giselle Salandy has been granted a profesional boxers’s licence to box in Trinidad and Tobago.

This after she reached her 17th birthday on Sunday attaining the minimum age requirement to be considered for the licence according to the Boxing Board Act. She was handed the licence yesterday by Melchoir Taylor, chairman of the Boxing Board of Control in a short ceremony at City Hall in Port-of-Spain. Also present was Women International Boxing Association (WIBA) local representative Molly Boxhill. The granting of the licence cleared the way for the Siparia fighter to defend her Ibero-Latin American welterweight (140 lbs) title.

In the main event in Friday’s five fight-card promoted by Cosmic Boxing Promotions, Salandy will defend her title against Colombia’s Paola Rojas. She had beaten Rojas more than a year ago in Curacao to win the crown. Friday’s card is at the Central Regional Indoor Sporting Arena in Chaguanas from 7 pm. In a media release yesterday, Boxhill revealed that it is the WIBA’s goal to heighten the profile of female boxing in Trinidad and Tobago beginning with the title fight on Friday. The bout will be supervised by WIBA executive director and chairman of the WIBA Rating Committee Ryan Wissow.

Boxhill hopes that female boxers will be encouraged to join the WIBA’s ranks by the performances of the eight local female boxers ranked in the WIBA’s 17 weight divisions. She and her committee believe that the women of Trinidad and Tobago will continue to distinguish themselves and their country. Both fighters are raring to go and are at the top of their training regimen and one can expect a wonderful spectacle as Salandy, who turned 17 on Sunday, has extended an invitation to all boxing enthusiasts to attend and lend her their support. Rojas said she was stronger and better prepared than when she last met Salandy, the occasion which signalled the beginning of their rivalry, and has vowed to re-capture the title on Friday.