IT'S ON. Night of Champions, the latest Sam Layne professional boxing card, has been given the thumbs up.

Yesterday, a delighted Layne told MIDWEEK SPORT that an interim Boxing Board of Control had been put in place and sanction has been given to the five-bout card which is now slated for June 1 at the Wildey Gymnasium.

"It is just the news that the boxers and all those associated with the card wanted to hear. It is great to get the all-clear and have things moving. We could have lost this card to Mexico. I have already spoken to Shawn Terry Cox and he is very excited to get in the ring," Layne said.

Layne won a bid over Mexico to stage two Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) title fights at the gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex on May 17, but the card was in doubt because no boxing board had been in place.

Cox, who turned pro last year after a lengthy stint as an amateur, and Miguel "Hands of Stone" Antoine, the fast rising 20-year-old, are fighting in the main bouts.

Antoine, a former St Lucy Secondary schoolboy who is unbeaten in nine fights, will trade punches with Leary Bruce of Trinidad and Tobago in a World Boxing Council's (WBC) CABOFE super lightweight 12-round bout.

Cox, 33, a past Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games gold medallist and an Olympian at the Syndey 2000 Games, will face fellow Barbadian Ricardo Kellman in a WBC CABOFE cruiserweight fight scheduled for 12 rounds.

Jamaican Rudolph Hedge has a showdown with Barbadian Ryan Weekes in a four-round featherweight contest; Kevin Stapleton opposes John "The Hammer" Trotman in an all-Barbadian welterweight four-rounder while Ricardo Blackman takes on the challenge of Guyana's Revlon Lake in a featherweight bout over six rounds.

Fight time is 7:30 p.m. (MK)