Braithwaite, Corbin to fight for CABOFE Cruiserweight title

By Avenash Ramzan

The September 2 clash between Guyana’s ex-world champion, Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite, and Trinidad and Tobago-based Guyanese, Sean Corbin, is no longer an elimination bout, but a straightforward battle for the Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) Cruiserweight title.
The fight will be the main attraction on the card, which is being promoted exclusively by the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) and fixed for the Banks DIH ground, Thirst Park.
Speaking to this publication via telephone earlier this week, GBBC Matchmaker, Eion Jardine, confirmed the change, while revealing the names of a few other boxers who will appear on the card.
Cruiserweight Braithwaite, 36, has been out of action since being knocked down thrice in the opening round by Barbados’ Shawn ‘The Sniper’ Cox at the WBC CABOFE Caribbean Cup Eliminator in February at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, and the upcoming bout will provide him with an opportunity of cashing in on the lucrative WBC Cup of Champions.
The Cruiserweight division was recently added to the Cup of Champions, the WBC’s 50th anniversary event.
The winner of the Braithwaite/ Corbin clash will subsequently face Canadian Troy Ross to qualify for the Cup of Champions, but that fight is tentative.
Ross is slated to take on Germany-based Cuban, Yoan Pablo Hernandez, on September 15 for the IBF Cruiserweight title in Germany, and should he (Ross) win that fight, he will have to forfeit entering the WBC Cup of Champions since the IBF is a higher level of competition.
If such a scenario occurs, it would mean a straightforward entry to the WBC Cup of Champions for the winner of the Braithwaite/ Corbin fixture. Southpaw Ross, 37, has notched up 25 wins with 16 coming by way of knockout and two losses from 27 fights.
The Braithwaite/ Corbin encounter is a critical one for both boxers, who are seeking to get their careers back on the right path following unconvincing performances in their last journey to the ‘square jungle.’ Like Braithwaite, Corbin endured a knockout in his most recent fight, losing in round four of a scheduled 10-rounder to Polish Dawid Kostecki for the vacant WBC Baltic Light Heavyweight title in Warsaw, Holand.
The 37-year- old Corbin has 14 wins with 10 knockouts, losing his other three fights within the distance.
Braithwaite, who will celebrate his 37th birthday on August 9, won the vacant WBC Cruiserweight title in 2002 with a 10th round TKO of Vincenzo Cantatore, but after three successful defences of the title and an unbeaten record at the time of 21-0, his career has gone downhill.
He has won just three of his last eight fights, with the most embarrassing of defeats coming against Cox earlier this year, when he was completely decimated by the massively-built Bajan. His record now stands at 24 victories (20 KOs) and five losses from 29 fights.
Meanwhile, Jardine divulged that Guyana’s CABOFE Bantamweight champion, Elton ‘Coolie Bully’ Dharry, and CABOFE Welterweight champion, Simeon ‘Candyman’ Hardy, will both appear on the card on the undercard.
According to the GBBC official, Dharry and Hardy’s opponents are yet to be confirmed, but the board is in talks with boxers from Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
Also set to appear on the card is Barbados’s Miguel Antoine, who will put his CABOFE Junior Welterweight belt on the line against Trinidad and Tobago-based Guyanese, Iwan Azore.
National and CABOFE Middleweight champion, Edmond DeClou, will face off with Howard ‘Battersea Bomber’ Eastman in a rematch after the former won the first encounter at Thirst Park Explosion last October.
Meanwhile, Jardine reiterated that the card is being promoted solely by the GBBC, and not in collaboration with boxing promoter, Carwyn Holland, as was stated in one section of the press.