Guisseppi returns home to ‘rest’

GOVERNMENT has been praised for their efforts in bringing back to Trinidad and Tobago the body of boxer Fitzroy Guisseppi from Jamaica. Guisseppi, one of the Caribbean’s leading boxers during the 1960s and 1970s, died from an apparent heart attack on Saturday. He was 55. The Trinidadian, who recently worked as a coach, had been cheering on his fighter at a 10-bout card on Saturday in St Catherine Parish and collapsed ringside, said Leroy Brown, president of the Jamaica Boxing Board. He was taken to nearby Spanish Town Hospital, where he died. Yesterday Buxo Potts, a childhood friend of the boxer said he was pleased with the response of Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Roger Boynes and John Yuille-Williams, Minister of Community Development and Gender Affairs.

“We have been talking with both ministers and they have been very co-operative in our efforts to bring back the body for burial,” said Potts yesterday. The international matchmaker struck up a relationship with Guisseppi while he was a teenager learning to be a horse racing jockey at the now defunct Union Park Turf Club in Marabella. Potts, Guisseppi and other leading boxers of the time, Roy Harry, Johnny De Pieza, Leslie “Chicken” Frederick”, Eddie Marcelle, Johnny Duncan and Eddie Marcelle all trained together. Venue was at the home of Burton Forde, the late promoter, whose son Cecil recalled how the fighters crystallized their dream of making it big. “But it was only Guisseppi who made it,” said a sad Forde yesterday. He was referring to the fact that Guisseppi attained the highest standards in the sport and despite not winning a world title always gave a good account of himself in the ring and brought pride and joy to his fans back home. Forde also observed that Guisseppi was almost obsessed with giving back something to the sport which took him all over the world and earned him a decent living.

“The only local boxer who had more fights than him was Carlos Mark who had 110. Guisseppi fought 85 professional bouts in 31 countries,” said Forde. He said that he first visited Belize with Harry for a fight and stayed there eventually finding his way to Haiti where he established himself as a businessman before the civil unrest in the early 1990s forced him to flee to Miami when his home was destroyed in the chaos.
He then left for Jamaica where he was based before his untimely death on Saturday doing what he loved the best, training boxers to achieve their full potential. Guisseppi was born in Marabella, and was the lightweight champion of Trinidad and junior welterweight champion of Belize. In 1979, he fought for the World Boxing Council’s junior welterweight title, but lost a controversial split decision to South Korea’s Sang Hyun Kim. Guisseppi’s professional career ended in 1985 with a welterweight bout against American Michael Bradley in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He accompanied Jamaican boxing teams to the Central American and Caribbean Games, and was a trainer at the Stanley Couch Gym in Kingston. He is survived by a son.