Woman boxer for First Citizens

WORLD mini-flyweight women’s boxing champion Ria Ramnarine has been nominated by the boxing fraternity for the prestigious First Citizens Sports Personality of the Year Award. This was confirmed yesterday by Cecil Forde, vice-president of the Amateur Boxing Association of Trinidad and Tobago. Forde said Ramnarine, who lives in Carapichaima, Central Trinidad got the nod of the selection committee ahead of men’s middleweight champion Kirt Sinnette and Caribbean Amateur Championships gold medallist Aaron Cumberbatch. “Sinnette has been impressive throughout the year fighting unbeaten while Cumberbatch continues on his upward trend but in the end Ramnarine got the nomination for apart from winning the world title last year she also received a national award,” said Forde. The Amateur Association official said he believes that Ramnarine has an excellent chance of copping the First Citizens Award since she represents courage, determination and success in one of the most competitive sports in the world.

Forde also responded to criticism that Ramnarine was not democratically selected and that there were more worthy women’s boxing champions who should have been considered. “It has always been the Amateur Boxing Association who have been given the privilege to chose the outstanding boxers for the national awards. That is traditional and we never had a problem with this,” said Forde. The ABA official pointed out that on their executive are two officials of the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board of Control who were in total agreement with the choice of Ramnarine. “We had vice-president of the Boxing Board of Control George Hadeed and their secretary Molly Boxhill and they gave the sanction of the controlling body. So it is not right to say that the amateur association made a decision. It was unanimous and one that represents the boxing fraternity,” said Forde. He also described the nomination process as “cordial” which produced healthy and wholesome debate on the merits and demerits of the candidates up for selection. “We met and discussed everything sitting together and engaging in good debate. There was no controversy or acrimony. We were undivided in the choice,” said Forde.

He said it is true that Giselle Salandy, Iva Weston and Canada-based Trinidadian Lisa “Bad News” Brown also won world titles last year and should have a stake in the nomination game for the First Citizens Award. “We considered this and were of the opinion that they won their bouts but there were several factors that worked against them chief being the controversy surrounding the sanctioning body and their promoters,” Forde said. The champions of the September 23 card were unable to collect their Women’s International Boxing Council belts because president of the organisation Don “Moose’ Lewis accused promoter Boxu Potts of owing on the belts which he failed to hand over. The champions were later recognised by the North American Women’s Boxing Council who presented championship belts to the winners on the card. Forde said in addition to winning the world championship last year against American Yvonne Caples at the Jean Pierre Complex in Mucurapo, Ramnarine also received a Humming Bird Medal for her exploits in the last Independence Day Awards List.

“There can be no doubt that she is the best candidate we have for the First Citizens Sports Personality Award and we wish her all the best since we feel she has a very good chance of coming out on top,” said Forde. The boxing official also announced that he will be staging the first Pro-Am card for the New year on Thursday, January 12 at the Cosmic Boxing Gym in Marabella. In the main bout over six rounds undefeated heavyweight Kertson Manswell will come up against Salimer Zimmerman of Curacao who is also unbeaten in six fights. He said the fight against Zimmerman is part of the plan to expose Manswell to boxers throughout the region leading up to a Commonwealth title shot this year. On the undercard is former amateur champion Michael Agard who has won three of his five bouts to date as a superlightweight. He matches fists with Malcom Smith of Arima in a four-round scrap. And Wendell Gorkhu, a cruiserweight from Carapichaima makes his professional debut against Selwyn Guy in a four-rounder. Guy of Arima has won his only fight to date. Forde said there will also be four top amateur fights on the card.