Ria prepares for P/Rican

FEMALE light-flyweight boxer Ria Ramnarine has postponed all plans to celebrate Christmas this year. Instead the reigning Ibero-American champion is concentrating on her upcoming ten-round bout against Puerto Rican Maribel Ocasio-Soto on Boxing Day (December 26) at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. The fight is on the undercard of a Tansley Thompson promotion in conjunction with Gordon Hoyte which will also feature heavyweight boxer Kertson Manswell and middleweight Kirt Sinnette who are both being groomed for world title challenges in the future. Yesterday Mau Pau Members Club of Woodbrook staged a media conference to hand over $20,000 to Ramnarine which will go towards the successful promotion of the bout.

Present were Ramnarine’s trainer Bharath Ramoutar; Chairman of the Boxing Board of Control Melchoir Taylor; Sherry Persad, Public Relations Officer of Ma Pau and former world lightweight champion Claude Noel and promoters Thompson and Hoyte. Ramnarine said yesterday she has been training very hard for the past six weeks and will be in top condition for the bout with Ocasio-Soto who is currently ranked No 11 in the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) rankings. The Carapichaima lass, ranked No 5 by the WIBA will be fighting for the first time since defeating American Diedre Hamaguchi for the Latin American crown in July. She currently has seven victories in nine fights. Ramnarine is intent on improving that record against Ocasio-Soto and has already postponed all plans for celebrating Christmas this year. “I am in the middle of my training and on a strict diet which means that my gift box of chocolates will have to wait until after Boxing Day,” she said yesterday. “Right now I am concentrating on my endurance under Sensei Ramoutar while my technical coach Daren Vidale is unavailable because of his job,” said Ramnarine.

Ramoutar said that it is important that Ramnarine fights Ocasio-Soto at this stage in her career but expects that she will not be as tough as Hamaguchi who gave the Trinidadian a game fight at the Chaguanas Indoor Regional Arena before losing on a unanimous points decision. “She has five wins, seven losses and two draws. But what is significant is against who the losses were registered — all world champions. So she is the ideal match for Ria at this stage in her career,” said Ramoutar. Ma Pau spokesperson Persad said yesterday that the organisation she represents is honoured to be the exclusive sponsor of Ramnarine, whom she described as a “young sportswoman of excellent fortitude.” She said their sponsorship of Ramnarine on the Boxing Day card exemplifies their involvement in sport having given her similar support in her preparation for the Ibero-American title-fight earlier this year.

Promoter Thompson said he was especially gratified to end the year with his fifth promotion and anticipates he will be celebrating victories for both Manswell and Sinnette on Boxing Day. Winner of his three professional bouts to date in convincing style “Big Cat’ Manswell will face his nemesis Terrance Steid of Jamaica who has beaten the Tobagonian twice as an amateur. Thompson also announced that former world heavyweight champion Trevor Berbick of Canada will be coming for an exhibition bout. Also slated to fight on the Boxing Day card are weltwerweights Kevin Placide and Floyd Trumpet who hope to clash for the national championship.