Kevin Sunich

It was about smiles and bow­ing as World Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (WBA) Min­i­mum weight cham­pi­on Et­suko Ta­da and WBA In­ter­im and World Box­ing Coun­cil (WBC) Cabofe cham­pi­on Ria Ram­nar­ine met for the first. The two box­ers en­ter­tained mem­bers of the me­dia at a press con­fer­ence at Al­i­cai's Palace, La­dy Chan­cel­lor Road, St Ann's, Port of Spain, yes­ter­day, be­fore their April 24 clash. Ta­da, de­spite her in­abil­i­ty to speak Eng­lish, took the time to demon­strate for Ram­nar­ine how the Japan­ese greet each oth­er. But you can be sure that it will be all busi­ness when the two fight­ers meet at the Jean Pierre Com­plex, Mu­cu­rapo, on Sat­ur­day night when the Japan­ese will put her WBA ti­tle on the line.

Ta­da speak­ing through an in­ter­preter said she is look­ing for­ward to the clash. "I did not do any­thing spe­cial in terms of prepa­ra­tion for this fight. It's just as usu­al. It is very cold in Japan, but I love the weath­er here in Trinidad, and I be­gan to feel a lot bet­ter since I have got­ten here on Fri­day," said Ta­da. The Japan­ese cham­pi­on said knock-outs are not in her fight plan. "I don't go for a knock-out but if the op­por­tu­ni­ty presents it­self then I take ad­van­tage of the open­ing. I will try my best as usu­al in an ef­fort to re­tain the ti­tle," said the WBA cham­pi­on.

Ram­nar­ine on the oth­er hand said she is in the best shape of her life. "I have nev­er been pre­pared as this be­fore for any fight. My five weeks camp at the Bon­nie Cani­no box­ing gym in Mi­a­mi, USA, has done a lot for me. I am pre­pared for what­ev­er Ta­da brings on Sat­ur­day night. "I have watched her tapes and I am pre­pared for what she has and even the un­ex­pect­ed. It is go­ing to be an ac­tion filled fight, 10-rounds of non-stop ac­tion. I have noth­ing to lose, so I am go­ing to give it my best shot," said the In­ter­im cham­pi­on.

All smiles as World Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion (WBA) In­ter­im cham­pi­on, T&T's Ria Ram­nar­ine, left, and WBA min­i­mum weight cham­pi­on Et­suko Ta­da pose for the cam­era at a press con­fer­ence at Al­i­cai's Palace, La­dy Chan­cel­lor Road, St Ann's, Port of Spain, yes­ter­day. Pro­mot­er Gio­van­ni Potts is at cen­tre. The two fight­ers will go all out on Sat­ur­day at the Jean Pierre Com­plex for the WBA min­i­mum weight ti­tle.

Potts threat­ens Box­ing board

Mean­while, man­ag­er Boxu Potts is call­ing on Chair­man of the T&T Box­ing Board of Con­trol Bri­an Lewis to find a new bout su­per­vi­sor, since he does not want Fran­coet Moore. "We don't want the su­per­vi­sor put for­ward by the board. Franceot Moore has been hav­ing an open war with me, and I would not al­low him to pre­side over a bout in­volv­ing my fight­er. If he is not re­moved from the ring area, we will sit in the dress­ing room," said Potts. Ta­da will be mak­ing a pub­lic train­ing ap­pear­ance at 2.30 pm in the gym­na­si­um at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain, to­day.