The working relationship between the Pan American Caribbean Boxing Organization and the Amateur Boxing Federation of The Bahamas could result in the very near future, in an expanded 'project' of Bahamian boxers training in Cuba.
As president of PACBO, I have had recent dialogue and official communication towards that end during a trip to Cuba. The idea is for the project to be directed from the Northern Bahamas base in Freeport through Terry Goldsmith.
The president of the Grand Bahama Amateur Boxing Association and who also heads the YMCA Club, Goldsmith works very closely with PACBO. Together a successful Easter Saturday event was staged. Wellington Miller, the Bahamas Olympic Committee President and the long-standing chief of the amateur boxing expressed his "delight over the "encouraging prospect."
"This is great. We are very happy and we thank the Cuban Boxing Institution for the success of Taureano (Johnson) and now, Valentino (Knowles) and Carl (Heild). It's a rugged job trying always to find money to give our boxers the best opportunities to develop.
"For that reason it is such a pleasure to have the assistance of a regional body like PACBO. We have already gotten a lot of assistance from PACBO in the way of equipment and tournaments. This is another way PACBO is seeking to help and we are grateful," Miller said.
Throughout the modern history of the Caribbean, Cuba has had the finest sports structure, particularly in boxing. For a number of reasons, sports leaders in the Caribbean nations have not taken full advantage of such an excellent opportunity to help drive their respective national sports development programs.
Amazingly while the rest of the world long ago recognized the benefits of the Cuban sports expertise and utilized the same, among Cuba's Caribbean sisters, this has not been the case.
The boxing family in The Bahamas made a determination during the early part of the last decade that Cuba would be the base for advanced training of the local amateurs. Accordingly, Johnson became pound-for-pound, the best boxer in the English-Speaking Caribbean. His high point before turning professional came in 2008 when he won two matches at the Beijing Olympics and finished the year as the No. 4 welterweight in the world.
Presently, light welterweight Knowles and Heild have taken the mantle and the Cuban boxing background has done wonders for them. Knowles is the only Bahamian to have won a bout at the World Championships. He captured a Central American and Caribbean Games gold medal and a Commonwealth Games bronze medal.
Welterweight Heild won a silver medal at the prestigious Dominican Republic Independencia Tournament and also a Commonwealth Games bronze medal. The PACBO project would hopefully help to create more little Bahamian boxers to emulate Johnson Knowles and Heild.
It is proposed that small groups through the Freeport base would travel into Havana to understudy the Cuban program. Hopefully the project will begin later this year.
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