The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

In his fourth trip to the AIBA World Boxing Championships, Carl Hield opened competition in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with a dominant performance in the opening round.

Hield scored a 3:0 decision over Lewis Benson of Scotland in yesterday’s preliminary round, in his first time competing in the 69 kilo category.

Fighting in the welterweight division, all three judges - Joe Bonet-Ortiz of Puerto Rico, Allan Roos of Finland and Meng Wang of China - scored the fight 30:26 in favour of Hield for each of the three rounds.

The 26-year-old Hield is one of 55 fighters in the weight class and will advance to face the fourth seeded fighter in the draw, Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan.

Yeleussinov received a bye in round one and is slated to square off against Hield on Friday, October 18.

He won a gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games and was a winner of his first two matches at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England, before he lost out to Italian Vincenzo Mangiacapre in the semifinals.

Benson opened the fight as the aggressor and connected with a few jabs. However, Hield was able to take control midway through the round and remained in control for the remainder of the fight.

In an interview with AIBA following the bout, Hield said he looked forward to the challenge of facing the higher ranked local favourite in the next round.

“I had a slow start to the fight but I picked up after the first round when I started to get warm,” Hield said. “But my dream is to have a fight with the Kazakhstan boxer, because I want the opportunity to prove my point. So I really needed that win. I hoped they were going to give me an Olympic champion, but against a Kazakh boxer at least I can prove my point because they always have good boxers”.

For the first time in eight years, Hield is the only fighter to represent the Bahamas at the AIBA World Championships. He participated in the “Road To…” training camp hosted by AIBA prior to the tournament.

“AIBA really made me who I am today because I’ve been to all the ‘Road to’ training camps. Italy, Baku, Wales… And now I’m here. It’s helping me because I’m the only elite boxer in my country, so I don’t get decent sparring, and the training facilities are really bad so thanks to the AIBA programme I was able to come here two weeks before, get good time with other countries and get a good training programme,” he said.

The 18th edition of the AIBA tournament concludes Saturday, October 28.

It is the second tournament of the year for Hield after he competed in the AIBA Elite Continental Boxing Championships in Santiago, Chile. He competed at the 15th championships in Chicago, Illinois in 2007, the 16th version in Milan, Italy, in 2009 and the 17th edition in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2011.

The tournament is considered the signature event on the AIBA calendar, starting in 1974 when the initial event was held in Havana, Cuba, for boxers between the ages of 19 and 40, competing in 10 weight categories.

This year, 457 boxers from 100 nations are participating.