Mullings, Whyte set for fierce Contender clash
CANADIAN BOXER Larone Whyte will try to continue his role of giant killer tonight, when he clashes with Jamaica’s Sakima Mullings, the No. 1 seeded boxer in this year’s competition and Contender Welterweight champion in 2014.
The contest this year is in the junior middleweight division with an upper weight limit of 154 pounds. The bout is scheduled for five rounds and will take place at the Chinese Benevolent Association auditorium on Old Hope Road in St Andrew. The card starts at 8.30 p.m. with two amateur bouts, and the main event starts at 9.30, and will be broadcast live on Television Jamaica.
Whyte has had only three professional fights, but he has won them all. In the preliminary round of the competition, he fought hard and furious to edge Devon Moncriffe, the 2013 champion.
With a blistering final round, and after emerging from the fray, he declared, “I am fit and ready to go all the way.”
Mullings, who has a 20-3 record, is going into tonight’s fight supremely confident, and cannot see himself losing to Whyte.
SPECIALISED TRAINING
Having drawn the first fight in the preliminary round, which took place on April 5, he has had the opportunity to get in a lot of specialised training, and was able to watch his opponent go up against Moncriffe. His camp has stated that they learnt a lot from that fight and will be using it judiciously tonight.
Mullings has also been paying a lot of attention to his conditioning, and will be in much better shape than he was in the first fight.
In his first fight against Winston Matthews, he was not as dominant as expected. His opponent had only a 1-0-2 record, but he stayed in the fight and made it very competitive. Mullings took off time to do some clowning in that fight, but if he makes that mistake tonight, it could cost him, as Whyte has shown that he is a no-nonsense fighter.
Against Moncriffe, he lost the first two rounds, but dug deep, and in an action-packed final stanza, did enough to earn the votes of the judges. He declared yesterday that he is “not intimidated by Sakima’s record. What happens in the ring is what determines the outcome, and I am coming to fight.”
Mullings, too, was very confident and sees the fight against Whyte tonight as just another step up the ladder to his second title.
Tonight’s clash promises to be one of the best in the series to date.