Post by B. Singh on Dec 3, 2007 12:29:19 GMT -5
Trinidad Newsday
By WALTER ALIBEY Sunday, December 2 2007
www.newsday.co.tt/sport/0,69099.html
Salandy out-boxes Stone to keep titles
The undefeated 19-year-old outboxed her 39-year-old experienced rival American Dakota Stone in an exciting ten- round bout.
After her unanimous points victory, Salandy credited her achievement to God and her promoter and match-maker Boxu Potts.
But the much awaited contest witnessed by a very appreciative crowd started close to midnight after fans arriving early for the two-bout card had wait more than three hours in anticipation.
The judges scored the fight 99-94, 97-93 and 99-92 unanimously in favour of the local fighter who keeps her World Boxing Council and World Boxing Associations belts intact.
The others titles at stake were the WIBA (Women’s International Boxing Associa-tion), World Boxing Empire (WBE) and the Women’s International Boxing Federa-tion (WIBF).
Both fighters came out in the early rounds looking to get a measure of each other with Salandy maintaining using her ringcraft and Stone trying to go toe to toe with her opponent.
Stone showed that she was better for her age showing superior fitness and a concentrated focus that denied Salandy any advantage.
But, spurred on by a partisan crowd, the fight changed pace from the fifth round when Salandy increasingly got the upper hand connecting with her jabs and left and right combinations.
Stone however seemed hardly affected by the blows and kept approaching her rival persistently as though she hardly noticed them.
The seventh and eighth rounds were slug-fests with both fighters, motivated by the desire to score a knock out, were trading punches at will.
But it was Salandy who managed to get the judges’ favour, as she eluded many of the punches thrown by Stone and then countered with effective combinations.
Then with the crowd chanting “Giselle, Giselle” in the tenth and final round, the Salandy, now 15-0, duly responded to the call, connecting with a barage of punches that had Stone stunned.
The sound of the bell brought much relief to the faces of both fighters and despite the pre-fight hype, they embraced each other.
After the announcement of the winner, Stone said she was disappointed. “I won that fight. I gave her credit for standing up to some really big punches but that fight was definitely mine,” Stone said.
She said her management team was also calling for a rematch but under certain conditions. She concluded by saying she loved Trini people and would love to be back in the twin-island republic again.
Potts said they are now seriously looking at German Carolina Lukasik for their next encounter. He said he did not have the money to bid for that fight but is hoping that corporate TT and the fans will help in making it possible
HE NEVER HAVE THE MONEY!!
TRINDAD EXPRESS
Sunday, December 2nd 2007
Ian Prescott iprescott@trinidadexpress.com
www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161244318
Salandy stops Stone
T&T champ saves fiasco at Complex
SALANDY SLIPS: Trinidad and Tobago's Jizelle Salandy, left, slips Dakota Stone's punch and attempts to land a blow of her own during Friday night's world title fight at the Jean Pierre Complex in Port of Spain. Salandy won by a unanimous decision over her American opponent.-Photo: Anisto Alves
"I can only say on behalf of the Boxing Board that this has been a fiasco," said announcer Mervyn Telfer, on the public address system. "It has been badly organised and I hope it doesn't happen again. You have shown discipline, you have shown tolerance. Let's hope Jizelle has the production to win the fight."
Trinidad and Tobago's Jizelle Salandy did produce the goods, but moments before she walked into the ring at 11.45 p.m. for Friday's ten-round world title fight against American Dakota Stone at the Jean Pierre Complex, patrons seemed in a riotous mood, rushing the dressing room entrance and demanding their money back after an almost four-hour wait.
Friday's card never got going until two hours after the 8 p.m. scheduled start. One of the preliminary bouts never came off, there was a mis-match in the other, which lasted just six minutes, and then there was another one hour and 30-minute wait for the main bout. Some eventually left the venue almost 20 minutes to one o'clock on Saturday morning.
"Refund! Refund! Refund! Refund!" Loud jeers were ringing though the Complex, before Salandy finally entered the ring and calmed the crowd.
Salandy (15-0) did her part, grinding out a comfortable and deserved unanimous decision points victory from an exciting five-belt world-title fight against the Seattle-based American, whose record fell to eight victories, seven defeats and five draws.
Local judge George St Aude had Salandy ahead 99-92, while Canada's William Boodoo (97-94) and Panama's Ricardo Duncan (97-93) had the fight closer.
After an even first round, Salandy appeared to win the next five with effective movement and counter punching.
Stone, 39, looked a slow, lead-footed boxer who needed to be set to throw a punch. She only became effective in the seventh, eight and ninth rounds, when Salandy got very tired and started running around the ring.
Urged on by her supporters, the T&T champion rallied strongly in the final round (tenth), scoring with combinations and a couple of clean punches which seemed to momentarily dissuade the American.
Afterwards, Stone felt she had won the fight, stating she put pressure on Salandy and landed the more effective punches.
"She hit me after the bell six times without getting a warning. Yet, the referee (Tommy Thomas) warned me for hitting below the belt twice, when I felt it was right on the belt line," Stone argued. "Some people are saying she has speed. She's got no speed and she has no power at all. I have fought better fighters than her. She has a lot of weaknesses, but I would say she has heart. She passed the test tonight, because she had never been tested before this fight, and she took my best punch...although she kept running away. I would hit her, and she was gone."
An elated Salandy admitted: "It was a tough fight."
She felt she had won and was supported by World Boxing Association (WBA) international commisioner York Van Nixon, who announced: "She (Salandy) knew she was fast and she made use of her speed to win the fight."
The earlier preliminary fight called the judgment of the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board into question, when fighters of two clearly separate weight class were allowed to get into the ring.
It resulted in a mis-match and another farce. The smaller man, Guyana junior middleweight Winston Pompey (162 pounds) fell to three wins, three defeats after he quit in two rounds, giving the 6ft one-inch Barbados light-heavyweight Shawn "The Sniper" Cox (180 pounds) his second professional victory.
After a long night, many also left questioning whether boxing deserved an audience, after the torture patrons were subjected to. And with mainly taxpayers' money funding promoter Buxo Potts' events, some argue that the Ministry of Sport and the Ministry of Gender Affairs--which funded his card on Friday night--should put measures in place to ensure he cleans up his act, or else re-consider their involvement.
While the promoter can be commended for his usual enterprise, Potts' caravan is quickly becoming a circus act and many people quickly got fed up.
Afterwards, Melchoir Taylor, chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board, said that while Potts has a lot of connections, the promoter is making a mistake by trying to do everything on his own.
Taylor was at a loss on how to remedy an extremely bad situation.
"The Board is very disturbed about the situation," Taylor lamented for the umpteenth time. "We can't continue to have this. It's very bad."
Potts, meanwhile, seemed to miss the point entirely, ranting afterward about the "fight-down" he has been getting, while at the same time making a plug for Government (again) and also the corporate sector to get involved in his next promotion.
Salandy backed him, rating Potts the hardest working promoter in the business.
A LITTLE SOMETHING ON BOXING
TRINIDAD GUARDIAN
Monday, December 3rd 2007
By Fazeer Mohammed
www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161244656
More of the same
A fiasco that should never happen again?
Make no mistake, it will, whether we're talking about the embarrassing charade of professional boxing, the shambles masquerading as West Indies cricket, or the house divided unto itself that is the top level of local football.
Nothing is going to change, even if Jizelle Salandy's outclassing of an aging opponent with a mediocre record assuaged some of the fans' anger and frustration on Friday night at the Jean Pierre Complex, even if the 110-run hammering of Zimbabwe yesterday made amends for the West Indies' humiliating loss in the series opener two days earlier, and even if a few more fans turned out and the players provided entertainment galore in the double-header billed as the farewell to former national goalkeeper Shaka Hislop last evening at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
Our gullibility, pettiness and tolerance for stupidness really know no limits. Maybe it's all part of our psyche as the quintessential easy-going Trinis: making a big set of noise only to boil down like bhaji, taking everything in stride and refusing to hold ground on anything just because it might involve more than a little personal inconvenience.
In essentially apologising to the diehard (they have to be to pay money to endure the experience of being treated with such disrespect) boxing fans as they waited for a main bout that didn't get underway until close to midnight, house announcer Mervyn Telfer's words had a decidedly hollow ring to it.
How many of those same spectators were at Skinner Park more than a month ago for what should have been the match-up of Salandy and Dakota Stone, only to learn, after yet another interminable delay, that the fight was off?
Isn't it the same Boxing Board that keeps sanctioning these half-ripe, slipshod promotions, after which officials like chairman Melchoir Taylor express dismay at the pitiful organisation?
Sadly, we can only expect more of the same.
One of the reports in the aftermath of the second One-Day International at the Harare Sports Club referred to the West Indies cricketers being "stung into action" in the wake of the 31-run upset loss 48 hours earlier. But where is the news in that?
We have grown accustomed to the regional side being left in the starting blocks at the commencement of any campaign against any opposition, home or away. Every once in a while such non-starts could be explained as the challenges of acclimatisation, jet-lag or maybe even the consequences of a hard day's night. But given the almost religious repetitiveness with which it occurs, it's safe to say now that most of these well-paid players go into every campaign unfit, unprepared and lacking in focus.
In normal circumstances, it would be said that Chris Gayle's hamstring injury has taken the gloss off victory. But what gloss is there for visitors with so much international experience and coming from an infinitely more stable environment to get the better of Zimbabwe in their current prolonged state of national strife and team turmoil?
Let's face it. Zimbabwe inflicts a sting from which we are able to recover only because the hosts lack the venom that comes with considerable experience and hardened professionalism. When we start slowly in the first Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth on December 26, Graeme Smith's side won't be floating around and stinging like bees as much they will be wading in with uppercuts and haymakers looking to knock us out cold.
The problem is that cricket doesn't have a mercy rule, so the match can't be called off when the Proteas reach 400 for four in reply to the Caribbean cricketers' paltry first innings effort of 180-something.
Prepare for the sort of pain that will make Friday's 31-run loss seem like an encouraging effort.
Dexter Skeene may be particularly keen to show Wim Rijsbergen and the many other skeptics that the standard of local football is not nearly as bad as the Dutchman suggests. But it seems the CEO of the T&T Pro League must first battle the enemies within if he is to ever convince the national senior team coach that a successful World Cup qualifying campaign does not have to be entirely reliant on foreign-based expertise.
When reigning champions Joe Public don't see it necessary to have any of their players involved in an exhibition series that was heavily promoted as an opportunity for League players to match their skills against quality international competition, you know for a fact that not everyone is on the same page.
But that is nothing new. Personal agendas have almost always taken precedence around here over the good of the game. The supreme irony is that many of those who turned their backs on the exercise, whether individually or as team policy, will very likely be turning to Hislop to mount a strong defence of their cause whenever the next dispute with the Football Federation arises.
You can only hope that the Players' Association president will assess each case on its merit and not stoop to indulge in all-too-common vindictiveness just because the complainants or their club officials couldn't give a rotten sapodilla about his farewell tribute tournament.
The realistic challenge is not preventing further fiascos, but working out where the next one will occur.
-fazeer2001@hotmail.com
By WALTER ALIBEY Sunday, December 2 2007
www.newsday.co.tt/sport/0,69099.html
Salandy out-boxes Stone to keep titles
The undefeated 19-year-old outboxed her 39-year-old experienced rival American Dakota Stone in an exciting ten- round bout.
After her unanimous points victory, Salandy credited her achievement to God and her promoter and match-maker Boxu Potts.
But the much awaited contest witnessed by a very appreciative crowd started close to midnight after fans arriving early for the two-bout card had wait more than three hours in anticipation.
The judges scored the fight 99-94, 97-93 and 99-92 unanimously in favour of the local fighter who keeps her World Boxing Council and World Boxing Associations belts intact.
The others titles at stake were the WIBA (Women’s International Boxing Associa-tion), World Boxing Empire (WBE) and the Women’s International Boxing Federa-tion (WIBF).
Both fighters came out in the early rounds looking to get a measure of each other with Salandy maintaining using her ringcraft and Stone trying to go toe to toe with her opponent.
Stone showed that she was better for her age showing superior fitness and a concentrated focus that denied Salandy any advantage.
But, spurred on by a partisan crowd, the fight changed pace from the fifth round when Salandy increasingly got the upper hand connecting with her jabs and left and right combinations.
Stone however seemed hardly affected by the blows and kept approaching her rival persistently as though she hardly noticed them.
The seventh and eighth rounds were slug-fests with both fighters, motivated by the desire to score a knock out, were trading punches at will.
But it was Salandy who managed to get the judges’ favour, as she eluded many of the punches thrown by Stone and then countered with effective combinations.
Then with the crowd chanting “Giselle, Giselle” in the tenth and final round, the Salandy, now 15-0, duly responded to the call, connecting with a barage of punches that had Stone stunned.
The sound of the bell brought much relief to the faces of both fighters and despite the pre-fight hype, they embraced each other.
After the announcement of the winner, Stone said she was disappointed. “I won that fight. I gave her credit for standing up to some really big punches but that fight was definitely mine,” Stone said.
She said her management team was also calling for a rematch but under certain conditions. She concluded by saying she loved Trini people and would love to be back in the twin-island republic again.
Potts said they are now seriously looking at German Carolina Lukasik for their next encounter. He said he did not have the money to bid for that fight but is hoping that corporate TT and the fans will help in making it possible
HE NEVER HAVE THE MONEY!!
TRINDAD EXPRESS
Sunday, December 2nd 2007
Ian Prescott iprescott@trinidadexpress.com
www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161244318
Salandy stops Stone
T&T champ saves fiasco at Complex
SALANDY SLIPS: Trinidad and Tobago's Jizelle Salandy, left, slips Dakota Stone's punch and attempts to land a blow of her own during Friday night's world title fight at the Jean Pierre Complex in Port of Spain. Salandy won by a unanimous decision over her American opponent.-Photo: Anisto Alves
"I can only say on behalf of the Boxing Board that this has been a fiasco," said announcer Mervyn Telfer, on the public address system. "It has been badly organised and I hope it doesn't happen again. You have shown discipline, you have shown tolerance. Let's hope Jizelle has the production to win the fight."
Trinidad and Tobago's Jizelle Salandy did produce the goods, but moments before she walked into the ring at 11.45 p.m. for Friday's ten-round world title fight against American Dakota Stone at the Jean Pierre Complex, patrons seemed in a riotous mood, rushing the dressing room entrance and demanding their money back after an almost four-hour wait.
Friday's card never got going until two hours after the 8 p.m. scheduled start. One of the preliminary bouts never came off, there was a mis-match in the other, which lasted just six minutes, and then there was another one hour and 30-minute wait for the main bout. Some eventually left the venue almost 20 minutes to one o'clock on Saturday morning.
"Refund! Refund! Refund! Refund!" Loud jeers were ringing though the Complex, before Salandy finally entered the ring and calmed the crowd.
Salandy (15-0) did her part, grinding out a comfortable and deserved unanimous decision points victory from an exciting five-belt world-title fight against the Seattle-based American, whose record fell to eight victories, seven defeats and five draws.
Local judge George St Aude had Salandy ahead 99-92, while Canada's William Boodoo (97-94) and Panama's Ricardo Duncan (97-93) had the fight closer.
After an even first round, Salandy appeared to win the next five with effective movement and counter punching.
Stone, 39, looked a slow, lead-footed boxer who needed to be set to throw a punch. She only became effective in the seventh, eight and ninth rounds, when Salandy got very tired and started running around the ring.
Urged on by her supporters, the T&T champion rallied strongly in the final round (tenth), scoring with combinations and a couple of clean punches which seemed to momentarily dissuade the American.
Afterwards, Stone felt she had won the fight, stating she put pressure on Salandy and landed the more effective punches.
"She hit me after the bell six times without getting a warning. Yet, the referee (Tommy Thomas) warned me for hitting below the belt twice, when I felt it was right on the belt line," Stone argued. "Some people are saying she has speed. She's got no speed and she has no power at all. I have fought better fighters than her. She has a lot of weaknesses, but I would say she has heart. She passed the test tonight, because she had never been tested before this fight, and she took my best punch...although she kept running away. I would hit her, and she was gone."
An elated Salandy admitted: "It was a tough fight."
She felt she had won and was supported by World Boxing Association (WBA) international commisioner York Van Nixon, who announced: "She (Salandy) knew she was fast and she made use of her speed to win the fight."
The earlier preliminary fight called the judgment of the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board into question, when fighters of two clearly separate weight class were allowed to get into the ring.
It resulted in a mis-match and another farce. The smaller man, Guyana junior middleweight Winston Pompey (162 pounds) fell to three wins, three defeats after he quit in two rounds, giving the 6ft one-inch Barbados light-heavyweight Shawn "The Sniper" Cox (180 pounds) his second professional victory.
After a long night, many also left questioning whether boxing deserved an audience, after the torture patrons were subjected to. And with mainly taxpayers' money funding promoter Buxo Potts' events, some argue that the Ministry of Sport and the Ministry of Gender Affairs--which funded his card on Friday night--should put measures in place to ensure he cleans up his act, or else re-consider their involvement.
While the promoter can be commended for his usual enterprise, Potts' caravan is quickly becoming a circus act and many people quickly got fed up.
Afterwards, Melchoir Taylor, chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board, said that while Potts has a lot of connections, the promoter is making a mistake by trying to do everything on his own.
Taylor was at a loss on how to remedy an extremely bad situation.
"The Board is very disturbed about the situation," Taylor lamented for the umpteenth time. "We can't continue to have this. It's very bad."
Potts, meanwhile, seemed to miss the point entirely, ranting afterward about the "fight-down" he has been getting, while at the same time making a plug for Government (again) and also the corporate sector to get involved in his next promotion.
Salandy backed him, rating Potts the hardest working promoter in the business.
A LITTLE SOMETHING ON BOXING
TRINIDAD GUARDIAN
Monday, December 3rd 2007
By Fazeer Mohammed
www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_sports?id=161244656
More of the same
A fiasco that should never happen again?
Make no mistake, it will, whether we're talking about the embarrassing charade of professional boxing, the shambles masquerading as West Indies cricket, or the house divided unto itself that is the top level of local football.
Nothing is going to change, even if Jizelle Salandy's outclassing of an aging opponent with a mediocre record assuaged some of the fans' anger and frustration on Friday night at the Jean Pierre Complex, even if the 110-run hammering of Zimbabwe yesterday made amends for the West Indies' humiliating loss in the series opener two days earlier, and even if a few more fans turned out and the players provided entertainment galore in the double-header billed as the farewell to former national goalkeeper Shaka Hislop last evening at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
Our gullibility, pettiness and tolerance for stupidness really know no limits. Maybe it's all part of our psyche as the quintessential easy-going Trinis: making a big set of noise only to boil down like bhaji, taking everything in stride and refusing to hold ground on anything just because it might involve more than a little personal inconvenience.
In essentially apologising to the diehard (they have to be to pay money to endure the experience of being treated with such disrespect) boxing fans as they waited for a main bout that didn't get underway until close to midnight, house announcer Mervyn Telfer's words had a decidedly hollow ring to it.
How many of those same spectators were at Skinner Park more than a month ago for what should have been the match-up of Salandy and Dakota Stone, only to learn, after yet another interminable delay, that the fight was off?
Isn't it the same Boxing Board that keeps sanctioning these half-ripe, slipshod promotions, after which officials like chairman Melchoir Taylor express dismay at the pitiful organisation?
Sadly, we can only expect more of the same.
One of the reports in the aftermath of the second One-Day International at the Harare Sports Club referred to the West Indies cricketers being "stung into action" in the wake of the 31-run upset loss 48 hours earlier. But where is the news in that?
We have grown accustomed to the regional side being left in the starting blocks at the commencement of any campaign against any opposition, home or away. Every once in a while such non-starts could be explained as the challenges of acclimatisation, jet-lag or maybe even the consequences of a hard day's night. But given the almost religious repetitiveness with which it occurs, it's safe to say now that most of these well-paid players go into every campaign unfit, unprepared and lacking in focus.
In normal circumstances, it would be said that Chris Gayle's hamstring injury has taken the gloss off victory. But what gloss is there for visitors with so much international experience and coming from an infinitely more stable environment to get the better of Zimbabwe in their current prolonged state of national strife and team turmoil?
Let's face it. Zimbabwe inflicts a sting from which we are able to recover only because the hosts lack the venom that comes with considerable experience and hardened professionalism. When we start slowly in the first Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth on December 26, Graeme Smith's side won't be floating around and stinging like bees as much they will be wading in with uppercuts and haymakers looking to knock us out cold.
The problem is that cricket doesn't have a mercy rule, so the match can't be called off when the Proteas reach 400 for four in reply to the Caribbean cricketers' paltry first innings effort of 180-something.
Prepare for the sort of pain that will make Friday's 31-run loss seem like an encouraging effort.
Dexter Skeene may be particularly keen to show Wim Rijsbergen and the many other skeptics that the standard of local football is not nearly as bad as the Dutchman suggests. But it seems the CEO of the T&T Pro League must first battle the enemies within if he is to ever convince the national senior team coach that a successful World Cup qualifying campaign does not have to be entirely reliant on foreign-based expertise.
When reigning champions Joe Public don't see it necessary to have any of their players involved in an exhibition series that was heavily promoted as an opportunity for League players to match their skills against quality international competition, you know for a fact that not everyone is on the same page.
But that is nothing new. Personal agendas have almost always taken precedence around here over the good of the game. The supreme irony is that many of those who turned their backs on the exercise, whether individually or as team policy, will very likely be turning to Hislop to mount a strong defence of their cause whenever the next dispute with the Football Federation arises.
You can only hope that the Players' Association president will assess each case on its merit and not stoop to indulge in all-too-common vindictiveness just because the complainants or their club officials couldn't give a rotten sapodilla about his farewell tribute tournament.
The realistic challenge is not preventing further fiascos, but working out where the next one will occur.
-fazeer2001@hotmail.com