KIRT Sinnette’s WBA Fedlatin super-middleweight title grudge match against Bahamian Jermaine ’Choo Choo’ Mackie has been postponed to December 12 at the Woodbrook Youth Facility.
The much publicised bout was pushed back because of the unavailability of the Woodbrook venue due to the staging of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Port of Spain last weekend.
But the shift in date for the fight may be a blessing in disguise, since it gives the Trinidad and Tobago middleweight champion some time to raise the rest of the funds needed for the five-bout card, which also features top local fighters Floyd Trumpet and Joel McCrea.
So far Sinnette has gotten help from Toyota Trinidad & Tobago Limited; Allen’s Funeral Home, Tunapuna; Minister of Sport Gary Hunt; and the Congress of the People (COP). But his promoter Patricia Constantine of Blue Promotion still has not raised half of the estimated $500,000 needed to stage the card.
The card will see Sinnette (18-1) facing Mackie (18-4), who inflicted Sinnette’s only professional loss on June 22, 2007 in the Bahamas. Since then, Mackie has gone on to win the Commonwealth super-middleweight belt which he held until he was stripped this year after losing in September to Adonis Stevenson in Canada.
For the last two years, Sinnette has accused Mackie of ducking him and promises a bad beating for the Bahamian on the 12th.
Sinnette told the Express that the new date has not seriously affected his training. The Laventille-based fighter has been encamped in Marabella where he has been working with both coach Winston Cox and Cuban coach Vincente Martinez.
’I have been preparing hard under these coaches. I don’t think the re-scheduling will affect me much. I just have to slow down some things a bit so that I don’t peak too early,’ said Sinnette, who also added that the Bahamian also understood the situation.
’They (Mackie’s management) did not have a problem. They are also a member of the Commonwealth, so they understand that this is unavoidable,’ Sinnette said.
