Potts asked to help Colombian

COLOMBIAN female boxer Paola Rojas is seeking the help of internationally known matchmaker/trainer Buxo Potts as she prepares to fight Trinidad and Tobago’s Giselle Salandy on Friday.

Yesterday Potts, a Trinidadian, confimed he was seriously thinking about joining the Rojas camp when the offer was made, shortly after the Colombians arrived at Piarco. “They realise they need some help with this fight. And they recognise that I can be of immense help to them in the bout,” said Potts yesterday. He said he can bring “flair and flamboyance” to the Rojas challenge in her attempt to wrest the Ibero-Latin American welterweight boxing championship from Salandy, a Siparia schoolgirl. The two fought for the championship more than a year ago in Curacao and in Salandy’s corner that night was Potts. “If I decide to assist Rojas, I will give it my best shot. I will advise her properly and once again Cecil Forde will come out the loser against me,” said Potts yesterday. But Forde, who has a contract to promote Salandy, denied that his boxers have ever been defeated by fighters under Potts.

Potts, a former jockey, said it will not be the first time that he has assisted foreigners who come here to ply their trade in the ring. “I have a history of assisting boxers who come to Trinidad. And they have all done well with my guidance and advice,” said Potts. He said that he helped Guyanese Wayne Harris when he fought lightweight Claude Noel in the 1980s. Noel, a Tobagonian, went on to win the World Boxing Asociation (WBA) title, the first TT boxer to record that achievement. Potts also said he was in the corner of Lenox Beckles, also of Guyana when he lost to Johnny de Pieza, a legendary local fighter. Beckles also stayed at Potts’ home whenever he was in this country. He has also assisted Barbadian Tyrone Downes and was his manager at one stage as that boxer made a name for himself while domiciled in Trinidad.

If Potts does accept the offer to help the Colombian the contest will take on an added dimension of a grudge match with Salandy’s adopted father and manager Curtis Joseph. Relations between the two have been strained in recent times. In fact Potts charged yesterday that Joseph refuses to speak to him. “But after the fight, if I am in Rojas’ corner he will have to come across and congratulate me,” Potts said yesterday.