Despite the continued complaint about lack of funds, Trinidad and Tobago’s top female fighter Ria Ramnarine will depart Saturday for the United States for a three-week training camp in preparation for her Boxing Day re-match against Venezuela’s Ana Fernandez, scheduled for Saith Park in Chaguanas.

So said Ramnarine’s promoter Boxu Potts yesterday at a media conference at Sweet Lime Restaurant in Woodbrook, also adding that the card on December 26, which is to become an annual affair, will be staged in memory of deceased world title-holder Jizelle Salandy, who died in a vehicular accident last January.

Ramnarine, declared by the World Boxing Association (WBA) as the interim champion in recess and who was presented with a $20,000 cheque by her main sponsor Ma Pau yesterday, has already qualified for a shot at the WBA title against Ibeth Zamora next March and will be using the Fernandez fight as a warm-up to the title bout.

’We have something to prove, to prove to Trinidad and Tobago that Ria Ramnarine is afraid of no one in the mini-flyweight division, moreso Ana Fernandez. We want to put all the doubters to rest and give her a good beating on December 26,’ said Potts.

To be better prepared for the bout with Fernandez, who lost a controversial split-decision match against Ramnarine at the same venue on July 31 in a result labelled a hometown decision, Ramnarine will travel to Fort Lauderdale to spar with some female boxers like Puerto Rican professional Ada Velez, the first female pugilist from her country to win a world title (IBA bantamweight) back in 2001, at the Bonnie Canino Boxing Gym, named after the former female world champion who will also assist in fine-tuning Ramnarine’s preparations.

’I ain’t going in there (against Fernandez) with no half pig/duck,’ Potts exclaimed. ’I tell all yuh dat already. We change up the corner, we change up the sparring partners, we change up the technique...the only thing eh change is the lack of funding.’

He continued: ’Ana Fernandez has to fight a clean fight and knowing that she has to fight a clean fight will pose a problem to her.’

Potts is still awaiting sanction from the Trinidad and Tobago Boxing Board of Control for the fight, as well as the rest of the $250,000 promised to Ramnarine for her preparations (she has received $75,000 to date, according to Potts) and openly challenged the Board to deny him the opportunity to host the card.

’This fight is going to be held in the memory of our late, great boxing champion Jizelle Salandy who last year Boxing Day gave her last performance to you all.

’Last year Boxing Day Jizelle performed creditably for her nation, Ria Ramnarine is going to give that same performance this year,’ Potts explained.

And what is Potts’s next move if the T&T Board, which is yet to grant sanction, does not approve the card?

’If it ain’t work out...well boy, that is a big if. That if is a real big if. Somebody has to answer that if and it ain’t me if it ain’t work out, because I don’t know of anybody who could stop that fight, anybody who brave enough to attempt to stop that fight on the last day that Jizelle Salandy fought for this country. So I not if-ing, that is when they approve it. ...Nothing can stop this fight after God,’ he stated.