An­drew Fer­min will be one of the top fight­ers go­ing in­to ac­tion to­day when the T&T Am­a­teur Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion's (TTA­BA) Yolande Pom­pey Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships be­gin with 12 pre­lim­i­nary bouts at Cos­mic Box­ing Gym in Mara­bel­la, from 7 pm. The sil­ver medal­list at the 2007 Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Cham­pi­onships in Colom­bia will trade punch­es with De­clan Cal­iste, a young and up­com­ing fight­er from the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T, in the se­nior open mid­dleweight di­vi­sion. A record 24 clubs and in­sti­tu­tions will be rep­re­sent­ed at cham­pi­onships, which will con­tin­ue with more elim­i­na­tion bouts on Sat­ur­day at the same venue and time. Fi­nals will be held next Sun­day.

Over­all, 115 box­ers are slat­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the tour­na­ment, which will serve as the main cri­te­ria for se­lec­tion of the T&T squad for the Caribbean Games lat­er this year. The clubs are Sand City, Pleas­antville, Cos­mic, UTT, YTC, Al­lan's, Phoenix, De­fence Force, Bear Bartholomew and Gen­tle Daniel, Box­ing In­sti­tu­tion, Tigers, Re­vival, Prince Glad­i­a­tors, Mag­ic, Fine Line, Gold­en Fist, St Michael's Home for Boys, St Jude's, Black Hawks, MI­LAT, Bilmel, World Class, Na­tion­al Train­ing Cen­tre and Rox­bor­ough. In cel­e­brat­ing its 60th an­niver­sary, the TTA­BA will be host­ing a se­ries of tour­na­ments this year. All will be named af­ter past box­ers and ad­min­is­tra­tors.

TO­DAY'S CARD

Ju­nior Fly­weight–Kevon Ros­tant (St Michael's) v Su­chit Ram­char­i­tar (Bio­mel).

Ban­tam Ju­nior Novice–Christo­pher Neck­les (Cos­mic) v Den­nis Mi­ran (YTC).

Ju­nior 51 kg–An­tho­ny Dur­gadeen (Phoenix) v Philip Chang Wai (Bio­mel).

Light weight Fe­male–Jes­si­ca Phillips (Pleas­antville) v Shali­ni Dook­ie (Pleas­antville).

Light wel­ter­weight Se­nior Novice: Math­ew Charles (Cos­mic) v Im­ran Khan (Fine Line):

De­on Charles (Gold­en Fist) v Jaleel Gar­cia (YTC).

Mid­dleweight Cadets Novice: Ki­wb Mc­Don­ald (Bio­mel) v Quin Laa Ralph (Bio­mel).

Light­weight Novice: Ke­ston Pierre) (Sand City) v Ver­lon Kerr (Rox­bor­ough).

Mid­dleweight Se­nior Novice: Tyree Williams (Bio­mel) v Cor­rie John (Cos­mic).

Mid­dleweight Se­nior Open: De­clan Cal­liste (UTT) v An­drew Fer­min (De­fence Force): Tim­o­thy Mc­Cloud (Rox­bor­ough) v Akiel Bans­field (Sand City).