Guyanese prodigal son, unbeaten super middleweight Lennox “2 Sharpe” Allen, returns home to Georgetown, Guyana for an Independence Day showdown Saturday night (May 28) versus Kwesi Jones (7-1, 4 KOs) in a 12-round match for the vacant WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation title, at Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. Allen (14-0-1, 9 KOs), a 25-year-old southpaw now living in Brooklyn, turned pro seven years ago in Georgetown. He moved a year later to Perth, Western Australia in order to advance his pro boxing career, but 18 months later he returned to Guyana..
After fighting three more times at home, Lennox took advantage of an opportunity to come to the United States in 2008 as a sparring partner for Bernard Hopkins. Allen captured the vacant Guyanese super middleweight title nearly two years ago, moved to Brooklyn a little more than a year ago, and then signed a promotional contact with Boxing 360.
Allen, who is now rated No. 9 by the USBA and No. 16 by the NABF, captured the New York State super middleweight crown last November, stopping previously undefeated Nick Brinson in the seventh round. “We’re very happy with the progress Lennox has made and it’s quite an honor for him to be invited back home to fight on a card celebrating his country’s Independence,” Boxing 360 CEO and Founder Mario Yagabi said. “We’re keeping him busy (this will be his sixth fight since last October) and positioning him for bigger and better fights in the not too distant future.”
The boxing fan-friendly Allen hasn’t fought in Guyana since June 27, 2009, when he knocked out Leon Gilkes in the second round. “This is a great chance for me to fight at home for the first time in a few years,” Allen remarked. “I’m very excited. I’m much more mature, mentally and physically, since I last fought there and I hope everybody back home sees my improvement.
“I’m comfortable living and training in New York City. I’m happy with the way Boxing 360 has kept me going. I’m fighting often and that’s helped me become a complete fighter. I’m disciplined and can fight or box. Boxing is all about making adjustments in the ring and that’s what I’ll be doing once again in this fight.”
Jones is riding a five-fight win streak, including a decision last September against former European champion and two-time world title challenger Howard “The Battersea Bomber” Eastman, into his match-up against Allen.
“When Lennox left Guyana,” Boxing 360 Director of Boxing Bob Duffy explained, “he hadn’t accomplished too much in boxing. Now, he’s returning home as a top prospect with a growing following. There is no greater honor in competition to fight for your country at the highest level, especially in your hometown, like Lennox will be doing May 28th in Georgetown. Not many athletes get an opportunity like this.”
Other members of Boxing 360’s stable include USBA heavyweight champion Maurice “Sugar Moe” Harris, WBC #3 super bantamweight Leon “Hurry Up” Moore, former IBF super middleweight champion Alejandro “Naco” Berrio, NY State champion welterweight Danny Sostre, KO king Tyrone Brunson, Nick “Hands of Gold” Casal, Amanda “The Real Deal” Serrano, middleweight prospect DonYil Livingston, Joshua “The Juice” Harris, Emad Ali, Mike Mollo, “King” David Estrada and Angel “Toro” Hernandez.
Go to www.Boxing360.com for more information about Allen, Boxing 360 or any of its other fighters.
Cerresso Fort Stops Taggart in Round 2
Hinckley, MN- Cerresso Fort (11-0 9 ko’s) put forth an exceptional performance on a high profile stage this past Saturday when he stopped Tim Taggart (5-3) in the 2nd round.
Fort was featured in the co-main event slot to the professional boxing debut of the NFL’sRay Edwards, which drew attention from media outlets across the nation. Fort’s stoppage of Taggart, and display of power punching prowess however, stole the night. The 25 year old Fort notched his eleventh straight win and snapped an inactive streak that dated back to Summer 2010.
“I feel really good. I knew Tim was coming to fight, He’s a good fighter, but I had a great camp. I worked in Florida and got some great sparring in. I wanted to fight like a warrior, we’re gladiators in this sport and I wanted to fight to win, I didn’t want to just fight not to lose.”
Fort underwent Training camp in Florida before returning home to his newly opened gym, Element Boxing and Fitness, to finish out training. The St. Paul native took another step up the middleweight latter, and acknowledges that he will be watching another Minnesota fight closely this weekend.
“I’d fight anyone really. I’d love to fight Kolle or Truax, they’re fighting this weekend and I’d love to take the winner or loser. I’m sure I’ll have to earn my shot at a fight like that so I wouldn’t even mind fighting the loser first just to prove I belong in the discussion. Like I said, I’m open to fighting anyone.” Fort noted in regards to future endeavors.
Cerresso Fort continues to train at Element Boxing and Fitness, located near University and Prior Avenue in St. Paul, and plans to have an active second half of 2011.
World Boxing Council News – 5/24
May 24, 2011 – Mexico City. From the office of World Boxing Council (WBC) President Dr. José Sulaimán: The following is one of the weekly “Hook to the Body” columns by WBC President Dr. José Sulaimán that are published in El Universal every Sunday. From May 22, translated from Spanish:
HOOK TO THE BODY
By José Sulaimán
The Untiring Commitment for Boxing Safety.
The WBC has been looking for many years to eradicate the abuse of boxers and manage our sport with rule, order and impartiality.
Some time around 1975, when I was first elected President of the WBC, the first matter that came to my mind was the irresponsible way by which safety in boxing and the loss of a human life was seen as if it was something normal, which I had experienced since a child with my so many boxing friends. That was the reason that I agreed to be president on the condition of the acceptance of safety as the top priority by the delegates of the 21 countries present. Today we are 164
About 20 to 25 fatal accidents in the ring were reported in those years. That number has been reduced to 3 to 5 with the WBC safety implementations now followed by most, and as of May 2011, there is an unquestionable proof of the right safety measures implemented by the WBC, at least in the last 30 years of which we at the WBC are so proud for leading boxing to the best era of boxers’ protection during the 300 years of documented boxing.
Among the most important reasons for accidents in the ring are the incompetent physical conditioning of boxers, as well as the inhuman abuse of boxers to reduce weight, which produces dehydration and fatigue, which are the two great dangers of athletes to lose power, flexibility, speed, and the sense of distance and pushes a boxer over the limits of human endurance. We must also consider the continuous punching of boxers with no precautions by trainers who only want them to keep fighting and last but not least, the awkward and limited action of referees who have not had the absolute necessary training and are not to be able to stop matches at the exact appropriate time.
The implementation of intermediate weight divisions, the pre-weigh-ins 30 and 7 days before the fights, the official weigh-in 24 hours before the bouts, and the mandatory fat percentage medical studies for boxers with constant weight problems are four major actions, among many others, that have been implemented by the WBC in more than a quarter century that make us very proud in our unwavering struggle for safety in the sport of our love.
However, boxing still has many problems to overcome, like the “pirates” of the gyms who steal boxers without appropriate training, not considering their weights and medical testing to take them to other places where boxing commissions care less about from where they come or for their residence approvals to fight, and much less the knowledge of their inhuman weight loss, like it was the fatal ring accidents of Bombero Sánchez and Jimmy García, who lost tons of weight during the month prior to their fights, with both dying after their fights. Another problem is the giant commissions who believe that they are Superman’s father and care less about respecting the boxers’ information from their commissions origins. We also have those promoters who care less to take very poor challengers against their stars to inflate them like balloons in the eyes of the fans, and we can not forget also those that disregard the boxers international passport issued by their resident commission, where they can find the necessary medical information of such an importance that it could be the difference between safety and barbarism.
For all of the above one of our top WBC Governors, Frank Quill, proposed a program for the evaluation of all or most professional boxers in the world so that mismatches could be eliminated or considerably reduced while detecting most of those in the business who do not act in an ethical and responsible manner, but without any consideration to safety, totally disregarding the health and the life of the boxers that they handle.
The WBC Board of Governors also approved an international traveling boxer’s passport, which would be a license to be able to detect the boxing and personal information of visiting boxers like suspensions, medical problems, the weight in which he fights, his real name and nickname, his level of boxing matches, and the official telephone number or email address which any commission or promoter could use to immediately check any information as a boxer.
A few days ago, a national boxing commission contacted the WBC only two days before a fight to inform of a boxer that was going to fight in a foreign country, stating that he had seven consecutive defeats with two by knockout in 2011, who apparently showed a false license which could not be investigated, that without timely evidence the fight had to be accepted by the local commission, which received a negative support from the promoter, the reason for which the local boxing commission accepted respectfully our invitation to have very specific medical and refereeing care. This boxer lost by third-round TKO, having been stopped by the referee who was aware that it could be a reason for a serious injury or even the loss if his life.
It is very unfortunate not to have been able yet to implement a way to stop the intervention of irresponsible managers, representatives, and promoters who have no idea of the risk of losing the life of a human being, as if boxing was an internet game. It is my opinion that both actions recommended above must be implemented in boxing, but it needs the decisive and enthusiastic cooperation of all of the boxing commissions of the world, whose responsibility is not only rating boxers and supervising boxing matches, but also giving themselves to the betterment of boxing and the welfare of boxers, if we don’t want boxing to disappear in the next 50 years for having become a sport for mercenaries, without any sensibility for the lives of human beings.
Thank you for your kindness in reading my notes.
****
THE WBC AND HISTORIC MOMENTS WITH HBO
Bernard Hopkins Becomes The Oldest Fighter In History To Become World Champion
Saturday, May 21, 2011, has been recorded as one of the greatest nights in the history of boxing. Bernard Hopkins, at age 46, performed with excellence and defeated in a dramatic fight WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal at a sold out Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
WBC President Dr. José Sulaimán said that he is extremely proud of the great effort that Jean Pascal gave trying to defend his championship, but Bernard Hopkins was determined and was ready to make history.
President Sulaiman said, “The WBC has a long and historic relation with HBO. HBO has promoted some of the best fights in the history of our sport and some of the best champions, as well. The leadership of Ross Greenburg and the HBO executives had held boxing to great moments and have held many fighters to make large amount of money bringing to boxing fans around the world historic and memorable fights.
“I met Ross Greenburg in the late seventies, and I perfectly remember when in 1983 Ross represented HBO at the United Nations Building to receive a special award from the WBC.”
Some of the greatest WBC moments with HBO are:
1. George Foreman knocked out Joe Frazier in 2 rounds on January 22, 1973, in Kingston, Jamaica and won the WBC heavyweight world championship.
2. Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in 8 rounds on October 30, 1974, in the historic “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire, Africa, to regain the heavyweight world championship.
3. The famous “Thrilla in Manila” when Ali defeated Frazier in 14 rounds on October 1, 1975.
4. The crowning of the youngest heavyweight champion in history, Mike Tyson, on November 22, 1986.
5. The greatest comeback in boxing history when Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Marvin Hagler on April 6,1987, at Caesars Palace.
6. The biggest upset in boxing history, when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in Tokyo, Japan, on February 11, 1990
7. Two of the greatest trilogies in boxing history: Morales vs. Barrera and Gatti vs. Ward.
8. The most dramatic ending of a fight when Julio Cesar Chavez knocked out Meldrick Taylor with two seconds remaining on the clock, on March 17, 1990.
9. The many thrilling moments of the “Golden Boy” Oscar de la Hoya’s career in the late nineties and the 2000s.
10. The first and only heavyweight championship ever held in Mexico, when Samuel Peter knocked out Oleg Maskaev in Cancun, Mexico in 2008.
11. The rise to glory of Manny Pacquiao in recent years.
This historic moment of Bernard Hopkins defeating Jean Pascal, winning the third Diamond WBC championship belt ever, and becoming the oldest world champion in the history of boxing, is without a doubt one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of our sport. It was a great fight with Hopkins defeating a great champion in front of a tremendous crowd. Boxing is once again at the top of the world.
The WBC and President Sulaiman have always been very proud of having been a top source of great fights by our highly respected HBO and its solid leadership by Ross Greenburg, which has benefited boxers and boxing.