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Boxers head to Continental Championships
- Updated: 8 June 2017
Hopkin Ebanks (left), Dariel Ebanks (right) are representing Cayman at the Continental Championships.
Two of the Cayman Islands’ top amateur boxers have travelled to Honduras to compete in the 2017 AMBC Continental Championships from 10-18 June.
Dariel Ebanks is expected to drop from light heavyweight to middleweight for the tournament, while Hopkin Ebanks will fight as a light welterweight.
The pair spent the past eight weeks in an intensive training camp in England with national coach, Ryan Barrett, who put them through the rigors at his old club at Gumshield Gym in South London.
“Dariel and Hopkin got the well-needed fights that were required, the sparring and the consistency in training every day,” Barrett said.
Dariel got some much-needed regular sparring in London.
At the tournament in Tegucigalpa, they will face the best fighters from across the Americas. Both has strong showings at the Caribbean Boxing Development Tournament in Barbados last December, with Dariel winning the light heavyweight division and Hopkin getting a silver medal in his weight class.
While they have proved they can take care of business with the English-speaking Caribbean’s best, the boxers are fully aware that it will be a step up to take on the best from North America and Latin America.
That’s why Dariel Ebanks, who now takes the moniker “Super D” into the ring, said he was grateful for the opportunity to train and fight in London.
“It’s what I needed,” the southpaw told CaymanSportsBuzz.com. “I’ve never fought that much in a three-week period. Every day, I was fighting. It was a good experience because it’s going to be the same experience at the Continentals. When I win my first fight, I’ll be fighting a day after. So, it’s just getting me ready for that.”
Hopkin Ebanks tangoed with some heavy hitters during sparring.
His confidence is buoyed by earning “Boxer of the Night” honours on two of the four fight cards he featured on in England, with the accolades coming in back-to-back weeks.
The top boxers at the Continental Championships will secure a berth in the World Championships in Hamburg, Germany. Barrett is confident that the Cayman Islands will be represented at the Worlds in late August.
“I expect nothing but a gold medal for Dariel. Hopkin – I’ll be happy with whatever medal he gets but anything short of a gold medal for Dariel, I’ll be disappointed. We’ve put in all the hard work but it depends on the draw,” Barrett said.
CaymanSportsBuzz.com will have updates from 2017 AMBC Continental Championships in the coming days.
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