Special adviser to the T&T Boxing Board of Control Boxu Potts says Olympic-bound boxer Carlos Suarez may be denied full funding from the Ministry of Sports for his trip to London unless he forwards his own training proposal or submits himself to be trained by the board's appointed coaches. In a statement released to the media, Potts warned that the interventions of Suarez's father Joseph, who has expressed a wish to train his son for the Games, could be potentially detrimental to the fighter's quest if the proper procedures were not followed. The American-born Suarez booked a spot at the Olympics after a winning a bronze medal at the Qualifiers of the Americas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in May. Potts said that Suarez, who began a training camp in T&T two months prior to the qualifiers, had turned up "just about 60 per cent physically fit" and a plan had to be created to counter his weight problems while building his strength and endurance.
Further challenges were presented when it was discovered that he had been trained in the professional style of boxing and "therefore had a lot of kinks in his armour." "It took a lot of dedicated hard work with the coaches to teach the Olympic Style Boxing whilst getting a lot of resistance from the fighter. So much was the resistance that we had no choice but to invite to the training camp his father, who spent more than a month in Marabella with the team," Potts said. "He (Carlos) had to be "re-schooled" on Olympic Style boxing, thereafter we were faced with the challenge of the father who wished to be in the corner at the Olympic Qualifiers and we could not have risked this." After Suarez's qualification, Potts says his father made a verbal request that he be his son's head coach going into the Olympics and was advised of the procedure for accreditation to the Olympics by the International body, which included written requests to be sent to the T&T Amateur Boxing Association, the Olympic Committee and the AIBA. A further request to the AIBA was sent by Suarez Jr, who is now awaiting the decision from the organisation. Potts said should Suarez Sr be given accreditation by the AIBA, both the TTABA and TTBBC would give full support.
However, he noted that the Amateur Association's recommended nutritional, technical and strength training programmes, which included trips to fight in Cuba, Venezuela, Ukraine and Whales, had since been rejected by Suarez Sr, who has failed to submit a plan of his own. "Since the Olympic Qualifier, the fighter has not put on a pair of gloves. The Amateur Association has since requested a training plan of Joseph Suarez and none has been submitted to date. "At this point Carlos Suarez needs to be sparring and properly evaluated before going to the Olympics. "My advice to the Suarez family is that there is no shortcut or quick-fix in sports; it is dedicated, hard work by fighter and team that creates a winning method. "Our motto is 'We Train, We Fight, We Win,' that is what we do. Therefore if Carlos Suarez wishes to medal at the Olympics he needs to train with the team who qualified him to the Olympics. "Should Mr Joe and Carlos Suarez decide to submit to be trained as well as forward their proposal, he will be given full assistance from the grant funding system in place by the Ministry of Sports to take him to the Olympics," he said.
