Monday, December 29 2008

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TRINIDAD and Tobago's Giselle Salandy, left, stuns Yahaira Hernandez on Friday night in their ten-round world boxing title fight. ...

A SPEEDY return to the ring is being planned for Trinidad and Tobago’s multiple women’s world light middleweight boxing champion Giselle Salandy.

Her manager Boxu Potts announced yesterday that his young star fighter is preparing to face American Angelica Martinez in late January, just four weeks after Salandy’s successful title-defence against the Dominican Republic’s Yahaira Hernandez on Friday night.

“Our plans are to take a fight against Angelica Martinez at the end of January to start what we expect to be a very busy year for Giseelle,” Potts said.

Potts is drafting a plan for Salandy to fight six times – once every two months — during 2009 with a huge title-defence against the American Mary Jo Sanders being the planned highpoint of next year’s campaign. The 32-year-old Sanders carved out an impressive 25-fight winning streak before suffering her first career loss in June this year – to fellow American Holly Holm – and then battled to a draw in a rematch with the American in October.

Salandy has a mandatory title-defence pending against Sanders and that bout is likely to be staged in March.

“We want to negotiate for that (Salandy/Sanders fight) to be a big pay per view bout that would land Salandy her biggest payday to date,” Potts said.

In the meantime, Salandy, who picked up US$25,000 for her win over Hernandez on Friday night at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo is very anxious to meet Sanders.

“I am excited, actually all my mind right now is on Sanders, even though I am supposed to fight Martinez in January,” admitted the undefeated 21-year-old.

Sanders has a ring record of 25 wins (8 knockouts) against one loss and one draw, while Salandy boasts a 17-0 log with six knockouts.

In her unanimous decision points victory over Hernandez on Friday night, Salandy retained her eight international 154-pound belts including the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA), World Boxing Association (WBA) and World Boxing Council (WBC) titles.

Salandy had been named WIBA “Boxer of the Year” last month mainly for her win in March over previously unbeaten Karolina Lukasik, and the WIBA president Ryan Wissow used the opportunity Friday night to present that award to Salandy.