by JUSTIN MARVILLESEPTEMBER will be the month to remember for boxing. Shawn “Terry” Cox’s biggest bout is set to precede Barbados’ biggest championships, as the island’s highest-rated fighter will defend his WBC CABOFE cruiserweight belt just two days ahead of the September 19 culmination of the Women’s World Boxing Championships. And there could be an equally big boost for the one-time Commonwealth Championship gold medallist’s future training. Former American fighter Tim O’Brien has joined forces with Cox’s camp, Sam Layne Promotions, with the hopes of advancing the dying sport in Barbados.
“I plan to do whatever I can to help and stay involved in the game because the state of boxing down here is pretty much non-existent,” said O’Brien, who owns his own brand of gear, Thump Monkey. “I’ll try to sponsor them, help out and maybe get a ring down here and some training facilities because there really is nothing. It’s a handful of dedicated fighters and a small ring at the National Stadium but that’s really insufficient for what these guys need to do.” Cox, also a former Central American and Caribbean Games gold medallist, dominated the local and regional professional scene before losing his first international assignment in a bout in Italy last December.
Now he is preparing to face Colombian cruiserweight champ Antonio Mercado, the fourth-ranked boxer in the Latin American region, for the right to fight for the Latin American title and to be rated in the top 15 in the world. But O’Brien believes the island’s top professional will not reach that next level under his current training and sparring situation. “He needs a gym, sparring partners, proper equipment, world-class trainers and boxers to help him get to that level,” the American said. “You can only do so much on your own, and as a former fighter I know that. You need to surround yourself with a good camp. You can only bring yourself so far.”
Cox’s promoter Sam Layne said he had been stressing that point for the last ten years while trying to get Government to help finance the acquisition of boxing rings and a training facility. “Government doesn’t have a realistic sports policy. If you look at the sports ministries, they’re always combined with something else like education and family and culture – things that are independent of sports,” noted Layne. “For the last ten years, I’ve been promoting fighting here and I couldn’t get a ring, but we have these amateur championships here and all of a sudden we can get six rings.
“I wonder what is going to happen to those rings – if at least one will be left here for people like Shawn to train in?” O’Brien has outfitted Cox in his Thump Monkey brand and is looking to bring in training equipment from the United States soon.
