Salandy stripped of boxing title

TEENAGER Giselle Salandy has been stripped of her Ibero junior welterweight boxing crown.

This was revealed yesterday by international matchmaker Buxo Potts who said the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) championship has been declared vacant. This development is partly due to the inability of the 16-year-old Siparia schoolgirl to obtain a professional boxers’ licence to fight in Trinidad and Tobago. The rules of the Boxing Board of Control stipulate that an applicant for a licence to fight professionally in the local ring  must be 17 years old. Potts also explained yesterday that Salandy had changed her manager, leaving Fitzroy Richards, who took her to the regional championship late last year in Curacao when she outpointed Paola Rojas of Colombia. He said Salandy’s new manager, Curtis Joseph, lacked the “wherewithall” to promote the fight in countries that were “favourable” to her age. Those countries include Curacao and St Maarten of the Netherland Antilles.

The former jockey explained that Joseph needs at least US $20,000 to promote a card outside of Trinidad and Tobago to place Salandy on the main bout against a leading contender for the title and fulfill the requirements of the WIBA for a defence of the crown within six months of winning it. Potts said he has already been successful in making a first bid for the vacant WIBA junior welterweight championship and hopes to have another young Trinidadian, Giselle Martin, fight for the crown. The match, against a top ten contender will most likely take place in Curacao in August said Potts. Meanwhile he is busily putting together a June 27 card tentatively set for the Biomel Gym in Arima.

In the main bout, Iva Weston, ranked No 9 by the WIBA in the 140-lb category will make a claim for a world championship against Anna Pascall of Panama over eight rounds. Pascall is the top ranked contender for the vacant title and gets the opportunity to fight in Trinidad for the crown after Potts put in a successfull first bid with the WIBA to stage the contest. Weston comes off an impressive performance in her last contest on the undercard of the Salandy-Rojas fight in Curacao. She is currently undefeated in six fights. On the undercard of the June 27 presentation, Gwendolyn O’Neal comes up against Scrolla Davidson in the 175-lb division in another women’s bout; Craig Storm fights Guyanese Reon Moore; Waldron Brooks matches fists with Kelvin George in a welterweight scrap; and Tiana Sosa-Saney of Tigers Gym gets a rematch with Giselle Martin. All bouts are over six rounds.