Yassin bemoans fast-tracking amateur boxers into pro ranks

-Mulls stipend as a means of keeping boxers in the amateur ranks

By Avenash Ramzan

President of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), K. A. Juman Yassin, is not in support of fast-tracking amateur boxers into the professional ranks, as he feels the “experience and expertise” gained at that level are lost during the transition process.

Yassin made the comment against the backdrop that amateur boxing is the only sport that has given Guyana a medal at the Olympics. He believes more focus and impetus should be placed on amateur boxing in order to replicate those performances of the past.
Former Bantamweight boxer, Michael Parris, has won Guyana’s only Olympic medal- a bronze- at the 1980 Moscow Games.
“One of the problems we have is that as soon as an amateur boxer wins 10 fights or even less he goes professional. As a result of that, the experience and expertise that he would have developed as an amateur is lost. And most of the amateur boxers who have gone professional, I don’t think they’re doing well,” Yassin declared during a press briefing earlier this week on Guyana’s performance at the London 2012 Olympics.
“So we need to be able to keep amateur boxers in the amateur division. I’ve spoken to Mr. Peter Abdool [president of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control] and we’re determined to do something about it. We are determined to be able to offer a stipend to the boxers so that they could have something per month. What that stipend would be I don’t know. We have to appreciate the fact that amateur boxers have families, they have children, they need money to spend, and so we have to be able to give them a monthly stipend and also to be able to keep them training and giving them what is required.”
Yassin opined that much more needs to be done to ensure that amateur boxing is supplied with a rich pool of talents that will eventually make the step up to the professional arena when the time is appropriate.
“There is also no support I feel for our boxers. Boxing is one of the sports that has won an Olympic medal; one of the sports we feel that we should get a gold in. [But] unless and until we do much more for boxing we will not go anywhere. What is needed for me in a nutshell for boxing is there must be facility in which amateur boxing can call their home.”
The Andrew ‘Sixheads’ Lewis Gym in East La Penitence has been designated the home of professional boxing, but Yassin questioned whether that facility meets the requirements to produce top-quality pugilists.
In an invited comment, president of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA), Steve Ninvalle, reasoned that while the swift move from amateur to professional is of concern to GABA, the association has no control if a boxer wants to become professional.
“We cannot stop them, although we try to dissuade them [from going professional]. But what can we do when a boxer tells you he’s doing it for economic reasons?” Ninvalle ruminated.
What is required, Ninvalle added, is a clear line of communication between GABA and the Guyana Boxing Board of Control, as to when boxers are ready to make the transition.
He related that recently a few amateur fighters turned professional, and GABA was totally unaware of this move until the night of the fight. This, he said, needs to be rectified. Ninvalle said a broad-based approach is necessary, and he is in talks with Director of Sport, Neil Kumar, and other stakeholders to ensure proper systems are put in place to allow for a smooth transition.