By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FROM the young to the old and a girl in between, a group of amateur and professional boxers put on a series of exhibition matches on Saturday night to help celebrate the one year anniversary death of legendary boxer/coach Ray Minus Jr.

It was April 27, 2023 when Minus Jr died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ASL), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, at the age of 58 and his daughter Rayshell Minus-Rolle said they were pleased with the support they got from the boxers and the general public at the National Boxing Gymnasium.

“I felt the show went well. It was the first Ray Minus Jr Memorial Boxing Show, but it will be an annual one and we will make it bigger and better,” she said. “We just wanted to get our feet wet and so it went well. It was a job done well by both the amateurs and the professionals.”

The amateur boxers all came from the stable of current national boxing coach Valentino Knowles, who trained the boxers at the National Boxing Gymnasium. He said he used his boxers in the exhibition because none of the other clubs participated in the show.

Some of the competitors were too young to know who Minus Jr was and there were more others who would have gleaned from his wealth of experience as a Bahamian and British Commonwealth bantamweight and lightweight champion, who fought three times for a world title shot.

Two of the lalter boxers were Kenny ‘Bahama Pride’ Stubbs and ‘Marvellous’ Marvin Smith, who entertained the crowd in the final bout of the night in a three-round exhibition for one minute each round.

“Even though I am a grandfather now, I just had to push myself to get in some type of shape to help inspire some of the younger fighters ,” said Smith, who made his return after last fighting in 2005.

“Somebody prepared the way for me and so I wanted to give them the exposure that I got. Ray was a good man. He was a nation builder. He gave up unselfishly to train a lot of people, including his brother, Kenny Minus, who beat me.”

Stubbs,who last fought in Nassau Village when he took on Smith and Minus Jr went up against his arch-rival Quincy ‘Thrill-A-Minute’ Pratt, said it was good to be back in the ring.

“I took a little while to get adjusted, but it was a good fight,” Stubbs said. “We did it for Ray. He was the first coach who trained me. People may not know, but Marvin Smith introduced me to Quincy, who introduced me to Ray Minus Jr.

Another pro exhibition was between Anthony ‘Pyhso’ Woods and Lionel Bain, What it ended up being wass an all-0out brawl between the two fighters.

“He came to fight and so I had to make it a real fight,” said Bain, who apologized to the referee, who slipped and fell trying to avoid one of the punches thrown at Woods.

Woods said Bain started it first.

“He should know better. I ain’t scared of nobody,” Woods said. “I was ready. I wanted to do this for Ray Minus Jr, the old coach. I couldn’t let him beat me even though it was just an exhibition.”

In making her debut in the ring, 15-year-old Hannah Cartwright stopped Huel Hanna in the second round after he received four standing eight-counts by referee Vincent Strachan, two in the first and two in the second.”

“I feel like he could have hit me, but he didn’t want to because I was a female ,” said Cartwright ,an 11th grader at RM Bailey, who was first introduced to fighting by her step-father Monty Barr, who encouraged her to defend herself.

“I was definitely disappointed that he didn’t even try to hit me. I could take a blow, but I hope I can get a rematch with him and he comes after me and hits me with a blow.”

Hanna, a 16-year-old 11th grader at Government High, said it was put in the ring against a girl and there was no way he was going to attack her, claiming that “it was awkward, but I don’t hit girls.”

All of the other bouts were between boys in the amateur segment of the show.

Anthony Bastian, a 17-year-old Government High student, took advantage of his opportunity to seal the deal against his opponent, Lariko Baker. He admitted that it ended quicker than he anticipated.

“I felt like I was underestimated, but I knew my performance was good,” he said. “I was so into the fight, I really didn’t know what happened.”

In another fight that was stopped, Mario Goddazd, a 17-year-old 12th grader at Galilee Academy admitted that he made a mistake by not putting up his hands after he got an eight-count from referee Strachan.

“As you can see, I was beating him, I was beating him, but I got caught off balance and I fell and the referee thought I was knocked down and he started to give me the eight count,” he said.

“I was so focussed on winning the fight in that third round, but with being an exhibition, I didn’t know he was going to stop it because I didn’t raise my hands. But I wish I could fight him again.”

Dario Smith, a 15-year-old 11th grader at Government High, said it was an exhibition so he didn’t want to show his opponent everything he had in his package.

“I just wasn’t fighting at my full potential. I was just throwing some light punches,” he said. “It was an exhibition and so I wasn’t throwing a lot of punches.

“My opponent surprised me. He was boxing longer than me, so I expected that he knew that he had to raise his hands after the referee gave the eight count.”

Cayden Higgs, an 11-year-old fifth grader at Yellow Elder Primary, said he had a lot of fun in the ring against his close friend.

“I knew we were not going to have any hard feelings,” Higgs said. “I know if I can continue to keep up my fight, work hard in the gym, I could do very well in the sport.”

Artist Kermit Miller, the proprietor of Bahamian Expressions in Oil, was on hand to present Minus-Rolle with an oil painting of her deceased father, Minus Jr,

“This portrait took me about two weeks. Not too many Bahamians paint in oil like I do,” Miller said. “Ray and I were very close. I was working at Whim’s Auto at the time and Ray had his boxing gym across the road.

“We spent many years communicating. I was working then in Whim’s Auto and Ray had his boxing club right across from. He was in boxing and I was in the martial arts, so we talked about a number of things.”