( L - R ) Sakima Mullings, Carl Grant - Contributed

When promising young welterweight Michael Gardener travels to Cardiff, Wales, next month to participate in the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) Road to London training camp, whatever fears he may have been experiencing will certainly be allayed as news has come that his coach, Carl Grant, will be accompanying him on the trip.

Grant who runs the Bruising Gym in Stony Hill was selected by the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control (JBBC) to attend the training camp following an invitation sent to the JBBC last Wednesday, by AIBA, inviting the board to send a coach to the camp.

"Selecting Carl was a no-brainer," said boxing board president Stephen 'Bomber' Jones.

"When AIBA sent us the invitation of an all-expense paid trip for a Jamaican coach to attend the training camp he was the logical choice. First of all Carl knows Michael well and for the last three years he has had some of the best boxers coming out of the Bruising Gym."

Jones said the invitation from AIBA also demonstrates that the international governing body is being watched and supported. "Jamaica is on their radar," he said, adding that AIBA wants to help in getting Jamaican boxing back on the international level and given the athletic talent available here on the island that support is soon to yield results. "AIBA is looking for champions," he said.

coaching career

Grant meanwhile, is over the moon at his selection to attend the camp, calling it the best thing that has ever happened in his coaching career. "It can't get better than this," he said, explaining that at the end of the three-week course he gets a certificate from AIBA. The former boxer turned coach said his young charge, Gardener was elated at the news. "He and his coach will be learning side by side," Grant said.

He said he was looking forward to learning all he can highlighting AIBA's new scoring system as one of the things he was eager to learn.

"There are lots of things that AIBA has out there and they're going to teach that. We're going to learn a lot," he said. Grant revealed that this year's Contender series is to start soon but he is willing to give that up for the training camp.

Jones is confident that whatever Grant learns he will impart that knowledge once he returns to Jamaica.