Salandy, Trumpet top Chaguanas card

Trinidad and Tobago’s prominent professional boxers Floyd Trumpet and Giselle Salandy will face stiff and slippery competition on Saturday, January 30 at the Central Regional Indoor Sport Facility in Chaguanas. Salandy, who turns 17 on January 25, will defend her Ibero-Latin American welterweight championship (140 lbs) against Paola Rojas on January 30.This will be the first act in the ring after receiving her boxing licence on Monday, January 26.

Trumpet, the “Fighting Postie” will take on Percy Bailey in a national welterweight title fight. Flanked by Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) and Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board of Control (TTBBC) officials, Salandy thanked the card promoters, her coaches Felix Jones and Joseph Charles, the WIBA and head Molly Boxhill. The Siparia schoolgirl called on the public to show their support on the night of the fight. The young pugilist said she was overjoyed to have the opportunity to defend the title in front of her home crowd and revealed that she was confident of a good showing yet weary of her opponent’s desire to upset her. She won the crown late last year by outpointing Rojas in Curacao. Since then she has not fought competitively.

But during the past year Salandy said she was involved in a strict training regimen which had her waking up at 4.30 am to run and then proceed  to the gym after school for six days a week. TTBBC chairman, Melchior Taylor, stated yesterday that he was pleased with the patience and progression Salandy had shown during the wait to get her licence. He noted that everyone in the local boxing community was behind her and that they all wished to celebrate her birthday with a successful defence of the title. Taylor was of the view that 2004 will be a good year for boxing in Trinidad and Tobago beginning with a Salandy victory, which he says is expected once she continues in the same way  which has seen her to this point. The TTBBC plan to continue with regular displays of the best local amateur boxing talent in the including those of Olympic hopeful Kertson Manswell National Amateur Boxing Championships and the marked growth of the local body’s prominence with mother ship, WIBA.

Trumpet, in response to Percy Bailey’s assertions that he has been avoiding a title fight with the Tigers boxer has taken up the challenge and plans to run with it, achieving a knock-out in the process. Bailey, who has promised to take Trumpet’s title will get the chance in the near future, and during his brief media address Trumpet thanked Bailey for his continuing persistence and promised to meet him with equal fervor in the ring. Stating that his training was only disturbed once during the last couple of months after he was robbed on Old Year’s Day of his car, Trumpet assured those gathered yesterday that he had regained his focus and that nothing would stand in his way now. The Salandy/Rojas bout will be the main event on the night while the Trumpet/Bailey spat will form part of the undercard. General admission is $25 and $75 for ringside.