Potts disputes Ramnarine claim

LOCAL matchmaker Boxu Potts has dismissed claims that recently crowned Ria Ramnarine is this country’s first ever women’s world boxing champion. Ramnarine won a controversial fight against American Yvonne Caples two weekends ago at the Jean Pierre Complex. However, Potts told Newsday in a recent interview that Ramnarine is the second local female pugilist to win a world title and that the honour of being this country’s first ever women’s world champion is Lisa Brown.

Brown, Potts said, was the first woman national pugilist to earn a world title when on September 7, 2001, she defeated Leona Brown for the then  vacant International Women’s Boxing Federation (IWBF) bantamweight title in a fight staged in Bermuda. The 34-year-old left Trinidad ten years ago to reside in Toronto and nearly four years after her success, Brown is still the holder of the belt and boasts a perfect record of ten wins from ten bouts. Potts said that plans are afoot to stage a clash between Brown and Ada Valez of Miami here in Trinidad. Efforts to reach Ramnarine and her manager for comments yesterday proved futile.