Kendall Ebanks is about to advance his boxing career.
The West Bay native is headed to the International Amateur Boxing Association training camp and accompanying world championships. The world’s largest amateur boxing programme is putting on the events in Baku, Azerbaijan with the camp taking place 9-21 September and the bouts scheduled from 22 September to 10 October.
Ebanks, 20, is the first Caymanian to be invited by the association. He was selected at the Pan American Games trials in Ecuador and Panama. Ebanks, who turns 21 in November, states he has lofty goals.
“I was picked to train and fight,” Ebanks said. “The association is taking care of things like my ticket, my housing and transportation. I just got to show up and fight. The championships are single elimination and to make it to the finals I’ll have seven or eight fights in a short time. I’m OK with it as I’m more than willing. If that’s what it takes to make it to the top so be it.
“The bar is extremely high. I want to go and get a gold medal. Once you fall into the top 10, you qualify to fight in the London 2012 Olympics. I want to be number one so that I can be the guy to watch in the Olympics.”
Ebanks’ invitation to the world championships is the biggest move in a short career. He started boxing back in 2007 and has been part of the national youth team.
The light welterweight was last in the ring in early August at the 11th annual Ringside World Championships in Kansas City, Missouri. He would lose his first fight along with Cayman brothers Raymond and Diego Rodriguez. The other members of the Cayman team, Tafari Ebanks and Aaron Powell, would advance to the quarter-finals.
Ebanks trains under renown boxing coach Norman Wilson with other young boxers like Chad Scott helping out. Ebanks states he is grateful for the support.
“I had a short break but I’ve been back in training six days a week. I train morning and night hitting the gym, shadow-boxing and sparring. Charles ‘Killa’ Whittaker is also around to support me and make sure I’m not slacking.
“Other boxers are motivating me too like my training partners Dariel Ebanks and Jesse Bodden (they’re also going to compete at the world championships). Right now I’m happy for all of the support from the Cayman people.”
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