GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana – Two of the re­gion’s lead­ing am­a­teur box­ers, Desmond Am­s­ter­dam and Abi­o­la Jack­man will spear­head a strong Guyana team at the up­com­ing Caribbean Cham­pi­onships.

Both Am­s­ter­dam and Jack­man are rat­ed among the best in the world in their re­spec­tive di­vi­sions based on the most re­cent In­ter­na­tion­al Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (IBA) rank­ings, head­ing in­to the Caribbean Cham­pi­onships, which is sched­uled to be held from Feb­ru­ary 27 to March 3 in St. Lu­cia.

It is the first time the re­gion’s pre­mier box­ing tour­na­ment will be held since 2019.

Am­s­ter­dam is ranked 29th in the light heavy­weight di­vi­sion and is the high­est-ranked Caribbean box­er in the di­vi­sion.

Mean­while, Jack­man is al­so ranked 29th in the world in the women’s heavy­weight di­vi­sion.

Guyana al­so boasts of sev­er­al oth­er world-rat­ed box­ers with Olympian Keevin Al­lic­ock ranked 36th in the feath­er­weight di­vi­sion, while Ja­mal East­man is ranked 50th in the light­weight di­vi­sion.

Ale­sha Jack­man, the younger sis­ter of Abi­o­la, is ranked 62nd in the light wel­ter­weight di­vi­sion, and Col­in Lewis, an­oth­er light wel­ter­weight con­tender, is ranked 83rd.

Pres­i­dent of the Guyana Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (GBA), Steve Nin­valle said he was pleased with their in­creas­ing pres­ence in the IBA world rank­ings.

“We are proud of what our box­ers have achieved so far. This is just the be­gin­ning. The GBA will con­tin­ue to work tire­less­ly to en­sure that more Guyanese fight­ers break in­to the world rank­ings and climb even high­er,” Nin­valle said.

CMC