Nicholas Walters

All is now set for the Hands of Gold boxing card on Thursday, featuring Jamaican featherweight Nicholas Walters, the World Boxing Association (WBA) Fedelatin champion, against Argel Salinas from Mexico, at the Karl Hendrickson Auditorium, Jamaica College. Fight time is 8 p.m.

Walters and his manager, Jacques Deschamps, will arrive in the island today from Miami at 1:40 p.m. and he will have a workout at the Stanley Couch Gym, Victoria Avenue, at 5 p.m. Salinas and his manager, Mauro Garcia, arrive tomorrow from Mexico, and the weigh-in will take place on Wednesday afternoon at the Spanish Court Hotel.

The fight card was officially launched last Thursday at the Spanish Court Hotel, by the president of the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control, Stephen Jones. The semi-final will see Jamaica's brilliant young middleweight Sakima Mullings going up against Winston Pompey of Guyana over 10 rounds for the vacant Commonwealth Zonal middleweight title. The third fight is between middleweight champion Rikardo Smith and Anthony Osbourne over six rounds.

The main bout which will be over 11 rounds, promises to be an exciting affair, and Walters, who is rated No 7 in the world by the WBA, will be making his professional debut in Jamaica. He is based in Panama, but also has a training camp in Miami. All his 17 fights so far have been on foreign soil, so boxing fans who remember his exploits as an amateur, are eagerly looking forward to seeing how he shapes up as a professional.

He is 17-0 with 14 knockouts, while his opponent has a record of 14 wins and eight losses, with seven knockouts to his credit. Walters is an aggressive fighter who likes to take the initiative at all times. Salinas is known to be an impressive in-fighter with good punching power and hand speed, so all the ingredients are there for a thrilling battle.

semi-final contest

There was an interesting twist in the semi-final contest. Smith was originally scheduled to fight Pompey, but when the Commonwealth Boxing Council reviewed his record, it did not approve the contest, since he had only four official professional fights. The minimum number of fights required by anyone fighting for a Zonal title however is five, so Smith could not challenge for the vacant middleweight title.

Mullings, who took third place in the recent Contender series, and was scheduled to fight in a six-rounder on the original card was offered the spot to fight Pompey and immediately accepted it. He is an aggressive, hard-hitting fighter, and there should be a lot of action in this fight, as Pompey is reported to like the action at close range.