Anthony Augustin out to avenge close loss to Mitchell Rogers as ProAm boxing resumes

Jan 17, 2012 Sports

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He sports a slightly chubby frame but packs a terrific wallop in both fists. Despite

suffering mixed fortunes in several ProAm boxing cards Anthony Augustin is still a force to be reckoned with. He has defeated Leon Gilkes, Kurt Bess and Clyde Williams before his career reached a brick wall with losses to Barbadian, Shawn Cox, Kwesi Jones and the return encounter against Bess.
The burly southpaw has since reorganized his career and is good and ready to redeem himself when he faces former heavyweight king, Mitchell Rogers in what is touted to be an eliminator for the right to challenge Bess once again in the 20th edition of the ProAm boxing cards slated for the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), Friday January 27 next.
Both fighters have faced Bess before with Rogers notching up a victory after he stopped Bess in the first of three encounters. To his credit Bess rebounded with victory on point and a subsequent knockout over Rogers to claim the local heavyweight belt. Now Augustin and Rogers will duke it out over 4 rounds for the right to face Bess in a return encounter.
Yesterday afternoon Augustin was hard at work under the tutelage of trainer, Lennox ‘Cappel’ Daniels and from all appearances intends to come out victorious. He started his sessions shadow boxing for three rounds before turning his attention to the heavy bag. They say that the punching bag is incapable of punching back but even if it were, Augustin ensured it would have been a trying task. Every punch was laden with mean intentions and if Augustin could retain such form Rogers would be required to deep to pull off a victory. He is scheduled to intensify his preparations with sparring sessions today and tomorrow afternoon.
Daniels is confident that his charge would pull it off. He feels that Rogers won the first bout by dint of his experience but assured that Augustin has improved vastly in this department. “My man is a power puncher and he will use that trait to full advantage,” Daniels boasted. He said that Augustin has studied Rogers ever since the loss and has determined that the former heavyweight champ cannot take a strong head punch. “And Augustin will be unleashing quite a few of those,” said Daniels. He also intimated that he has been concentrating on a lot of strength work and Augustin will enter the ring bridling with confidence.
Augustin supported his coach’s views saying that he is ready for revenge. He said that he has seen Rogers in action against Bess and had

observed a plethora of faults. “In retrospect I cannot imagine how I allowed him to get past me in our last fight,” stated Augustin while promising to walk off with the spoils this time around.
Meanwhile, Rogers is also confident of winning. When this newspaper visited the Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) where he is honing his skill, we were told that the muscular fighter trains late when the atmosphere is much cooler. However, in earlier discussions Rogers had spouted confidence even saying that Augustin was not in his league.
Indeed, Rogers has rebounded somewhat after losing to Bess late last year. In a recent bout against Trinidadian world beater, Kirston Manswell, the muscular pugilist had battled the Trinidadian to the end but lost controversially in a fight many Trinidadians felt Rogers should have won. Also a mean puncher, Rogers would be out to prove that his career is back on track especially since a victory would net him an eagerly awaited return bout with Bess.
Otherwise, Simeon Hardy matches gloves with Trinidadian based Iwan Azore for the Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) welterweight title. The two were involved in a pre-fight brawl at the signin

g ceremony with Hardy literally drawing first blood when he landed a left hook that opened a cut over Azore’s eye. Thereafter referee, Eon Jardine was required to stay in the centre during a photo opportunity exercise to avoid a further confrontation. These two will obviously transfer their bitterness to the ’square jungle’ and a heated confrontation is anticipated.
Cecil Smith was also hard at work in preparation for his bout with Jermaine King in another welterweight shindig. He is also expected to commence sparring sessions sometime this week. He has rendered King to second best in their bout last year but King would have benefitted from a stint in the Twin Island Republic where he returned and held Barbadian Miguel Antoine to a 4 rounds stalemate. He is bristling with confidence and has already signaled an intention to win.  The final professional bout will witness Patrick Boston in a middleweight clash with Edmond DeClou.
Kaieteur Sport will continue to track the boxers to present analytical perspectives of their activities as fight night draws near. The bouts will not be shown live as happened before but will be televised for a future airing. Admission remains at $1000 for adults with children paying half that price.

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