The Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) has seemingly set the trend in the Caribbean Region in regard to disciplinary action being meted out to boxers who display a lacklustre attitude to training and discipline when their respective nation is expecting them to excel at their craft.
Guyanese Keevin Allicock
Acclaimed T&T amateur boxer Michael Alexander was last Friday given by the Trinidad & Tobago Boxing Association (TTBA) the same treatment that Guyanese and Caribbean Bantamweight Champion Keevin Allicock received from the GABA last week.
In a letter addressed to this outstanding boxer, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Association, Cecil Forde, highlighted the boxer’s lacklustre approach to training in light of an international engagement in less than two months’ time.
Michael Alexander (right) in action
Hinting that the boxer’s fitness was not 100 per cent at the Pan Am Boxing qualifiers some two months ago, Forde citied that training, or lack thereof, was the reason for his low fitness.
It was disclosed that the boxer was supposed to be rigorously training ahead of the July 27–August 2 Pan American Games in Peru, but he had instead missed out numerous training sessions, leaving the coaching staff “at their wits’ end”.
Moreover, it is alleged that the boxer has had only 6 of 60 sessions at the National Training Centre, Halsey Crawford Stadium, Trinidad and Tobago.
Similar to the action the GABA took against the esteemed Guyanese boxer Allicock, the TTBA has threatened to withhold Alexander’s stipend if the boxer does not proverbially pull up his socks.
Alexander, meanwhile, is being given opportunity to sit down and discuss with TTBA executives issues regarding his poor training ethics.
On Thursday last, it was disclosed that GBA President, Steve Ninvalle, in a letter, recommended that Keevin Allicock’s training trip to Cuba and his stipend from the Guyana Olympic Association be put on hold until he improves his attendance at training.
The Trinidadian Lightweight boxer Michael Alexander has been stellar in the international ring, having copped bronze at the Pan American Championships in 2013, the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and another bronze at the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2014. Just last year, he uplifted the silver medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Colombia.
It was revealed that the TTBA saw the bold step that was taken by GABA, and decided it was the best way to get the attention of one of their best boxers, and hopefully turn around his attitude towards training.
In Ninvalle’s letter, a number of reasons had been advanced why Allicock’s Cuba training trip should be put on hold. The most significant of those was that Allicock has missed more than 50 per cent of his local training sessions with Cuban Coach Roland Francisco.
Additionally, it was disclosed that spanning the period of May 1 to May 23, Allicock had missed 18 of 30 training sessions scheduled with the Coach.
While stating that “less than 50 per cent attendance at training leading up to any competition is unacceptable, barring illness”, the GBA had come to the conclusion that the boxer was unmindful of his training, and that body feared that the same would happen when he travels to Cuba.
It is expected that these drastic actions would cause both the Guyanese and Trinidadian boxers to see the light and pull up their socks ahead of this year’s Pan American Games, which are just six weeks away.
