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GBBC’s President clears the air on Vivian Harris’ comments
Harris explains what he meant by ‘Boxing officials’
By Sean Devers
In Friday’s issue of this newspaper (Sept 18, 2000) in a story headlined ‘Never got money given by GOG for World Title’ Vivian Harris, the third Guyanese Boxer to win a world title, was quoted as saying, “When I became World Champion I came back home for the celebrations but have not gone back since then because they (boxing officials) robbed me of my money that the Government give me.”
Peter Abdool, Vivian Harris (Saddo boxing)
Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) President Peter Abdool, who replaced outgoing President KD Persaud in 2017, cleared the air yesterday on Harris’ comments.
“The Boxing Board does not receive any money from the Guyana Government. Only Amateur Boxing gets money from the Government,” informed Abdool, who is also the Managing Director of the Abdool & Abdool Insurance Agency.
The GBBC had taken issue with comments which had suggested the GBBC was somehow responsible for Harris not receiving all of his funds provided by the Government for winning the WBA junior Welterweight title in Texas in 2002.
Abdool said that when Clive Atwell suffered a head injury on October 24, 2015 against Dexter Gonzales at the Giftland Mall for the vacant FECARBOX World Boxing Council’s (WBC) lightweight title, he paid $3 million the same night for the life-saving emergency surgery.
“Steve Ninvalle (President of the Guyana Boxing Association) and I have spent huge sums of money on local boxing but some reporters gave the impression that we do nothing for boxing. What Vivian Harris is saying is far from the truth and more research should have been done to verify the facts,” lamented Abdool, an avid supporter of Sports in Guyana.
When contacted yesterday Harris, who owns a Restaurant in Florida where he lives with his wife and three kids, explained what he meant by using the term ‘Boxing Officials’.
“Nowhere in the story did I say Guyana Boxing Board officials robbed me…..I said Boxing officials….which meant officials who are apart the boxer’s team. I was only sent US$5,000 of the (G) $5 Million I was given by the Government after I was already back in the US,” informed Harris.
He added that when he spoke about Atwell’s issue in Mexico, he was talking about the low amount of money he was paid by the promoters for that fight.
Abdool was disappointed that Harris would encourage young boxers to leave Guyana but Harris said he stood by his views.
“Those officials, who are a part of a boxer’s team including the manager and at times the promoter, are corrupt and only think about how much money they can make and don’t care about their boxer,” Harris stated.
When contacted Harris’ father and boxing promoter Herman Harris confirmed the GBBC is not given any money for Boxers who win titles.
He added that Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite and his son won World Titles in the space of two weeks. Their respective teams negotiated on their behalf for their reward money from the Government.
Kaieteur Sports apologizes if the GBBC viewed the story as if they were responsible for Harris not receiving his money from the Government which was not the case.
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